This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at jhttp : //books . qooqle . com/
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
wtfu
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
07
EMINENT SCOTSMEN
ROBERT CHAMBERS,
OV* OF THE KDITOM OF "CHAXSEfttt BOUTBUROB JOVRVAX..*
NEW EDITION.-REVISED AND CONTINUED TO THE PBESENT TfflE.
ILLUSTRATED BY EIGHTY AUTHENTIC PORTRAITS, 4c
Thb Biographical Dictionaby of Eminent Scotsmen, a New Edition
of which is now offered to the public, contains authentic Biographies
of all Scotsmen who have attained eminence in the literary, scientific,
religious, or political world; warriors, statesmen, historians, philoso-
phers, poets, theologians, and martyrs, from the days of Malcolm
Canmore to the present time; each treated at a length suited to his
particular merit or fame, and the whole arranged for reference in alpha-
betical order.
Few countries can point to an array of names equally illustrious with
those which are enshrined in the annals of Scotland, and numerically
so great in proportion to her total population. In the arts of war and
of peace, in science, philosophy, history, poetry, and religion, in
asserting civil and religious liberty, and in carrying it into practical
effect, her sons' are equally famous; the names of Wallace, Bruce,
Buchanan, Knox, Melville, Guthrie, Smith, Burns, Watt, Scott, and
Chalmers, are each representatives of a class who have contributed to
render her name renowned throughout the world. This important
Work, therefore, which conveys, in a succinct and intelligible form, a
good and interesting account of the struggles, principles, attainments,
and actions, of such men, cannot fail to appeal powerfully to the
3
Digitized byVipOglC ; - £, -y ^
2
sympathies not only of natives of Scotland, who may naturally be expected
to feel deeply interested in the history of those of their countrymen
whose names have added a fresh lustre to their native land ; but also
of all who love and admire the good and great in whatever clime and
in whatever land they may have been born; and at the same time it can-
not fail to be eminently useful by setting before aspiring minds brilliant
examples of what has been already accomplished.
The Biographical Dictionary op Eminent Scotsmen was edited
by Eobert Chambers, one of the editors of Chambers? 8 Edinburgh Journal,
&c, whose writings are so well and favourably known, and was highly
appreciated on its first publication; but many years having elapsed since
that time, many eminent persons have been gathered to their fathers in
the interval, rendering the Work now, to a certain extent, incomplete.
In the New Edition now issued, the original Work has been carefully
revised, some Biographies extended, others rendered more succinct
and precise; and, in addition, a SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME has been
added, including notices of eminent individuals who have died since
the Work was first published, together with such names as had then
been omitted. The Scottish Biographical Dictionary will thus
continue to be what it has ever been, the most complete and interesting
record of the Lives of Eminent Scotsmen that has issued from the
Press.
CONDITIONS.
The revised portion, forming what constituted the original Work, and the
Supplementary Volume, will be completed in Nine Divisions, elegantly
bound in cloth, at 6*. 6i. each. The whole will be illustrated with Eighty
authentic Portraits^ engraved on Steel, in the first style of art ; and Five
Engraved Titles, giving views of the principal Seats of learning in Scotland.
BLACKIE AND SON:
GLASGOW, ED INBURGH, LONDON, AND NEW YORK.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
-■' /
j/Blk
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
: -.\
K\1rV IV "iPYlf 'i -ii'Vr 'Vt! •''. v i ■
^ v
i
•''■■■' ^ | | + ^^ f( K4
H I A A 1 A \ ♦
•A ■ 1 M
Xf-MFiR'-uJ A^THEKTi-
P'-KTHAITr'
VOM-ME I
T i iir r;:ivK:-.:*: I'r f ;:
ir: :; M-. c(< i :. r
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
; ,c » -**
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
EMINENT SCOTSMEN.
s
EDITED BY
rt
BOBEBT CHAMBEBS,
\
OKI 07 THE SDROU OF "CHAXBIRS'S BDnrBUEOH JOUKRAL."
NEW EDITION BEYISED AND .CONTINUED TO THE PRESENT TIME.
WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS.
DIVISION L
BLACKIE AND 80S :
GLA800W, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
y^MDOGCUIIp?
THE NEW Y^K
PUBLIC LIBRARY
_, 1687 A^
ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
R 1921 L
9^9. BLACK IB AND CO., rHIRTBBA,
, ■ .* . -VILLAFIFLD.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
F I . j !/, T II F ',« F I j 1 N Al. 1 N T H ?'. 1 i T } ii
P "
n, F.r,:N;r. h:ii.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Li.Ft».,x-.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
//,
t (i
FRoFEo£CR CF C HEMIS TF.Y. UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
K LAC HIE * :".N, (TLA.TXW EMKliTlVm v '-,' 'NI ~N
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
En.)-, V, 1 i V .
YiiU
V. nti ; l-i-'.TNA!. LN K:
H. , !;.. n;
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
,1 i
k ^*J
ni '■:' i.'- j u l'.. l ;
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Digitized by
Google
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
OF
EMINENT SCOTSMEN.
ABERCROMBY, The Honourable Alexander (Lord Abercromby), a distin-
guished lawyer of the latter part of the 18th century, and an elegant occasional
writer, was the youngest eon of George Abercromby of Tullibody, in Clack-
mannanshire, and brother of the celebrated Sir Ralph Abercromby. He was born
on the 16th of October, 1745. While his elder brothers were destined for the
army, Alexander chose the profession of the law, which was more consistent
with his gentle and studious character. After going through the ordinary
course of classes at the university of Edinburgh, he became, in 1766, a member
of the Faculty of Advocates. He was at this early period of his life the fa-
vourite of all who knew him, not only for the uncommon handsomeness of his
person, but for the extreme sweetness of his disposition. Being given to the
gaieties of fashionable life, he had little relish for laborious employment; so
that, for some years after his admission into the Faculty of Advocates, his
splendid abilities were well-nigh obscured by indolence or frivolity. Roused at
length to exertion, he engaged with ardour in all the duties of his profession,
and soon became eminent for professional skill, and distinguished as a most
eloquent pleader. His reputation and business rapidly increased, and soon
raised him to the first rank at the Scottish bar. In May, 1792, he was
appointed one of the judges of the Court of Session, when, in compliance with
the custom of the Scottish judges, he adopted the title of Lord Abercromby;
and, in December following, he was called to a seat in the Court of Justiciary.
u In his judicial capacity he was distinguished by a profound knowledge of law,
a patient attention,aclearness of discernment, and an unbiassed impartiality which
I excited general admimtion." His literary performances and character are thus
summed up by his friend, Henry Mackenzie, who, after his death, undertook the
task of recording his virtues and merits for the Royal Society :—" The laborious
employments of his profession did not so entirely engross him, as to preclude his
indulging in the elegant amusements of polite literature. He was one of that
society of gentlemen who, in 1779, set on foot the periodical paper, published
at Edinburgh during that and the subsequent year, under the title of the
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ABERCROMBY.— PATRICK ABERCROMBY.
Mirror ; and who afterwards gave to the world another work of a similar kind,
the Lounger, published in 1785 and 1786. To these papers he was a very valu-
able contributor, being the author of ten papers in the Mirror,' and nine in the
Lounger. 2 His papers are distinguished by an ease and gentlemanlike turn of
expression, by a delicate and polished irony, by a strain of manly, honourable,
and virtuous sentiment." Mackenzie states that they are also characterized by
an unaffected tenderness, which he had displayed even in his speeches as a
barrister, and adduces the following specimen: — "There is one circumstance,"
says Mr Abercromby, in debating whether long or short life be most desirable,
" which with me is alone sufficient to decide the question. If there be anything
that can compensate the unavoidable evils with which this life is attended, and
the numberless calamities to which mankind are subject, it is the pleasure
arising from the society of those we love and esteem. Friendship is the oordial
of life. Without it, who would wish to exist an hour? But every one who
arrives at extreme old age, must make his account with surviving the greater
part, perhaps the whole, of his friends. He must see them fall from him by
degrees, while he is left alone, single and unsupported, like a leafless trunk,
exposed to every storm, and shrinking from every blast." Such was not destined
to be the fate of Lord Abercromby, who, after exemplifying almost every virtue,
and acting for some years in a public situation with the undivided applause of
the world, was cut off by a pulmonary complaint, at Falmouth, whither he
had gone for the sake of his health, on die 17th of November, 1795.
ABERCROMBY, John, the author of several esteemed works on gardening,
was the son of a respectable gardener near Edinburgh, where he was born
about the year 1726. Having been bred by his father to his own profession,
he removed to London at the early age of eighteen, and became a work-
man in the gardens attached to the royal palaces. Here he distinguished
himself so much by his taste in laying out grounds, that he was encouraged
to write upon the subject. His first work, however, in order to give it greater
weight, was published under the name of a then more eminent horticulturist,
Mr Mawe, gardener to the Duke of Leeds, under the title of Mawe's
Gardeners' Calendar. It soon rose into notice, and still maintains its place.
The editor of a recent edition of this work says, "The general principles
of gardening seem to be as correctly ascertained and clearly described by this
author, as by any that have succeeded him." And further, " The style of Aber-
cromby, though somewhat inelegant, and in some instances prolix, yet appears,
upon the whole, to be fully as concise, and at least as correct and intelligible, as
that of some of the more modern, and less original, of his successors." Aber-
cromby afterwards published, under his own name, The Universal Dictionary
of Gardening and Botany, in 4to. ; which was followed, in succession, by the
Gardeners' Dictionary, the Gardeners' Daily Assistant, the Gardeners' Vade
Meoum, the Kitchen Gardener and Hot-bed Forcer, the Hot-house Gardener,
and numerous other works, most of which attained' to popularity. Aber-
cromby, after a useful and virtuous life, died at London in 1806, aged about
eighty years.
ABERCROMBY, Patrick, historian, was the third son of Alexander Aber-
cromby of Fetterneir, in Aberdeenshire, a branch of the house of Birkenbog in
Banffshire, which again derived its descent from Abercromby of Abercromby
i No«. 4,9, 18,45, 51,57,66, 68,87,90,104. t Noi. 3, 10, 14, 23, 80, 47, 74, 81, 91.
Digitized by
Google
PATRICK ABERCROMBF, 3
in Fife, Frauds, the eldest son of Abercromby of Fettemeir, was created Lord
Glossford in 1686 ; but as the patent* by an extraordinary restriction, was
limited to lib own life only, the title did not descend to his children, Patrick
Abercromby was born at Forfar in 1G5G, and was educated at the university of
St Andrews, where he took the degree of Doctor in Medicine in 1685. His
family being eminently loyal, the young physician is said to have changed his
religion, to please James VI 1., who consequently made him one of the physicians
of the court. A proceeding so adverse to all propriety, however loyal, and
accordant with the temper of the times, was speedily and severely punished ;
for, at the Bevolution, Abercromby was deprived of his appointment* For
bo me years after he appears to have lived abroad ; but he returned to Scotland
in the reign of Queen Anne, and devoted himself to the study of national anti-
quities. In 1707, he published a translation of M. Beauge's very rare hook,
L'Histoire de la Guerre d'Ecoase, 155U, under the title of, The History of the
Compagnes 1348 and 1549] being an exact account of the Martial Expeditions
performed in those days by the Scots and French on the one hand, and the
English and their foreign auxiliaries on the other; done in French by Mons.
ikauge, a French gentleman ; with an introductory preface by the Translator*
In the preface, the ancient alliance between Scotland and France is strenuously
asserted, This curious French work, which gives a complete account of the
war carried on by the Popish government of Cardinal Beatoun, aided by the
French, against the English under Protector Somerset, was reprinted in the
original by Mr Smythe of Methven for the Bonnatyne Club, 1829, along with
a preface, giving an account of Aberoromby a translation. The great work of
Dr Abercromby is in two volumes, folio, entitled, The Martial Achievements
of the Scots Nation, He tells us in the preface, that, not venturing to write
regular history or biography, he had resolved to relate the deeds of all the
great men of his country 4 in a less ambitious strain, and with a more minute
attention to small facts, than is compatible with those styles of composition,
lie also, with great modesty, apologises for his manner of writing, by saying,
" When my reader is told that 'twas my fate to spend most part of my youth
in foreign countries, to have hut viewed, en passant t the south port of Britain,
and to have been conversant with Roman and French, rather than with English
authors, he will not expect from me those modish turns of phrase, nor that
exact propriety of words, Scotsmen, by reason of their distance from the foun-
tain of custom, so seldom attain to." The first volume of the Martial Achieve-
ments was published, in 1711, by Mr Robert Freeboirn, and shows a respectable
list of subscribers. About one-half of it is occupied by the early fabulous
history of Scotland, in which the author, like almost all men of his time, and
especially the Jacob ilea, was a devout believer, It closes with the end of the
reign of Robert Bruce. The second volume appeared, with a still more nume-
rous and respectable list of subscribers, in 1715; it was partly printed by
Freeboirn, and partly by Thomas Ruddiman, who not only corrected the
manuscript, but superintended its progress through the press. This is said by
Chalmers to have been the first typographical effort of Ruddimon. Aber-
cromby 'a Martial Achievements is upon the whole a very creditable work for a
Scottish antiquary of that period ; the author is not superior to the credulity
of his age and party, but he is eminently industrious, and his narrative is
written in on entertaining style. The work shows a wide range of authorities,
and is liberally interspersed with controversial discussions of the points most
Digitized by
Google ^
SIB RALPH ABERCROMBY.
contested ty antiquaries. Dr Patrick Abercromby died poor in 1716, or, as
other writers say, in 1726, leaving a widow in distressed circumstances.
ABERCROMBY, Sib Ralph, a distinguished general officer, under whom
the British arms met their first success in the French revolutionary war, was
the eldest son of George Abercromby S of Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire, a
gentleman of ancient and respectable family, and of Mary, daughter of Ralph
Dundas of Manor. He was born at Menstrie, in the parish of Logie, on the
7th October, 1794. His education seems to hare been regarded with more care
than was usually manifested by the Scottish country gentlemen of the early
and middle parts of the last century. After passing through the customary
course at Rugby, he became a student, first in the university of Edinburgh,
and subsequently in that of Gdttingen. He entered the army, as cornet in the
3rd dragoon guards, May 23, 1766, and became a lieutenant, in the same regi-
ment, in the year 1760 ; which rank he held till April, 1762, when he ob-
tained a company in the 3rd horse. In this regiment he rose, in 1770, to the
rank of major, and, in 1773, to that of lieutenant-colonel. He was included
in the list of brevet colonels in 1780, and, in 1781, was made colonel of the
103rd, or king's Irish infantry, a new regiment, which was broken at the
peace in 1783, when Colonel Aberoromby was placed on half-pay. It may
be noticed, in passing, that he represented the shire of Kinross in the British
parliament from 1774 till 1780; but made no attempt to render himself conspi-
cuous, either as a party-man or as a politician* In September, 1787, he was
promoted to the rank of major-general, and next year obtained the command of
the 69th foot. From this corps he was, in 1792, removed to the 6th mot ;
from that again to the 6th ; and in November, 1796; to the 2d dragoons, or
Scots Greys.
On the breaking out of the French revolutionary war, Abercromby had the
local rank of lieutenant-general conferred on him, and served with distinguished
honour in the campaigns of 1794 and 1796, under the Duke of York. He
commanded the advanced guard in the affair of Cateau (April 16V1794), in
which Chapuy, the French general, was taken prisoner, and thirty-five pieces
of cannon fell into the hands of the British. In the reverses that followed, the
British army escaped entire destruction solely by the masterly manoeuvres of
Abercromby, who was second in command. He was wounded at Nimeguen,
in the month of October following; notwithstanding which, the arduous service
of conducting the retreat through Holland, in the dreadfully severe winter of
1794, was devolved wholly upon him and General Dundas. Than this retreat
nothing could be conceived more calamitous. The troops did all that could be
expected from them in the situation in which they were placed. Oppressed
by numbers, having lost all their stores, they made good their retreat in the
face of the foe, amidst the rigours of a singularly severe winter, resembling
more that of the arctic circle than that of the north of Germany. For the
removal of the sick, nothing could be procured but open waggons, in which
they were exposed to the intense severity of the weather, to drifting snows, and
heavy falls of sleet and rain. The mortality, of oourse, was very great. The
regiments were so scattered, marching through the snow, that no returns could
be made out, and both men and horses were found in great numbers frozen to
1 He was born In 1705, called to the bar hi 1728, and died, June 8, 1800, at the advanced
age of ninety-fire, being the eldest member of the college of justice.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
SUl RALPH ABERCROMBY.
death. " The march," says an eye-witness, ** was marked by scenes of the
moat calamitous nature* We could not proceed a hundred yards without seeing
the dead bodies of men, women, children, and horses, in every direction. One
scene," adds the writer, " made an impression on my mind, which time will
never be able to efface* Near a cart, a little further in the common, we per-
ceived a stout-looking: man and a beautiful young woman, with an infant about
seven months old at the breast, all three frozen dead. The mother had most
certainly died in the act of suckling her child, as, with one breast exposed, she
lay upon the drifted snow, the milk, to all appearance, in a stream drawn from
the nipple by the babe, and instantly congealed. The infant seemed as if its
lips had just then been disengaged, and it reposed its little head upon the mother's
bosom, with an overflow of milk frozen as it trickled down from its mouth.
Their countenances were perfectly composed and fresh, as if tbey bad only
been in a sound and tranquil slumber," The British army reached De-
von ter, after incredible exertion, on the 27th of January, 1705; but they
were not able to maintain the position, being closely pursued by a well-
appointed army, upwards of fifty thousand strong. They continued their
progress, alternately fighting and retreating, till the end of March, when the
main body, now reduced one-half, reached Bremen, where they were embarked
for England, Nothing could exceed the vigilance, patience, and perseverance
of General Abercromby during this retreat, in which he was ably seconded by
General Dundas and Lord Cathcart ; nor did the troops ever hesitate, when
ordered, to halt, face about, and fight, even in the moat disastrous and distress-
ing circumstances.
While the French were making thoae gigantic efforta at home, which con*
founded all previous calculations in European warfare, they also made unex-
pected struggles abroad. They repossessed themselves in the West Indies of
Guadeloupe and St, Lucia, made good a landing upon several points in the
island of Martinique, and made partial descents on the islands of St. Vincent,
Grenada, and Marie Galanto. In these various incursions tbey plundered, in
the several islands, property to the amount of one thousand eight hundred
millions of livres (about £72,000,000). To put an end to these depredations,
a fleet was fitted out in the autumn of the year 1795, for the purpose of con-
veying a military force to the West Indies; sufficient for not only protecting
what yet remained, but recovering that which had been lost. The charge of
the land troops was given to Sir Ralph Abercromby, with the appointment ot
commander-in-chief of the forces in the West ludies. In consequence of this
appointment, he took the command, and hastened the embarkation ; and,
although the equinox overtook them, and, in the squalls that usually attend it,
several of the transports were lost in the Channel, the fleet made the best of its
way to tb© West Indies, and by the month of March, 1796, the troops were
landed and in active operation . St. Lucia was speedily captured by a detach-
ment of the army under Sir John Moore, as was St. Vincent and Grenada by
another under General Knox. Tbe Dutch colonies, Demernra, Essequibo, and
Berbice, on the coast of Guiana, likewise fell into the hands of the British
about the same time, almost without stroke of sword- The remainder of 1796
having been thus employed, Sir Ralph made preparations for attacking, early
in 1797, the Spanish island of Trinidad. For this purpose, the fleet sailed
with all the transports, from the island of Curacao on the morning of the 16 tb
February, 1707, and next day passed through the Bams into the Gulf of Bria,
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
8IB RALPH ABERCROMBY.
where they found the Spanish admiral, with four sail of the line and one frigate,
at anchor, under cover of the island of Gaspagrande, which was strongly forti-
fied. The British squadron immediately anchored opposite, and almost within
gun-shot of the Spanish ships. The frigates, with the transports, were sent to
anchor higher up the hay, at the distance of about five miles from the town of
Port d'Espagne. Dispositions were immediately made for attacking the town
and the ships of war next morning by break of day. By two o'clock of the
morning, however, the Spanish squadron was observed to be on fire. The
ships burned very fast, one only escaping the conflagration, which was taken
possession of by the British. The Spaniards, at the same time that they had
set their ships of war on fire, evacuated the island. The troops, under Sir
Ralph Abercromby, were of course landed without opposition, and the whole
colony fell into the hands of the British. Sir Ralph next made an attack upon
Porto Rico, in which he was unsuccessful, and shortly after he returned to
Britain, and was received .with every mark of respect. He had, in his absence,
been complimented with the colonelcy of the second dragoons or Scots Greys,
and nominated governor of the Isle of Wight. He was now (1797) advanced
to the dignity of the Bath, raised to the rank of a lieutenant-general, and in-
vested with the lucrative governments of Fort George and Fort Augustus.
The disturbed state of Ireland at this time calling for the utmost vigilance,
Sir Ralph Abercromby was appointed to the command of the forces in that
unhappy country, where he exerted himself most strenuously, though with less
success than could have been wished, to preserve order where any degree of it
yet remained, and to restore it where it had been violated. He was particularly
anxious, by the strictest attention to discipline, to restore the reputation of the
army ; for, according to his own emphatic declaration, it had become more for-
midable to its friends than to its enemies. During this command he did not
require to direct any military operations in person ; and the Marquis Corn walks
having received the double appointment of lord-lieutenant and commander-in-
chief of the forces, Sir Ralph transferred his head-quarters to Edinburgh, and,
on 31st of May, assumed the command of the forces in Scotland, to which he
had been appointed.
In the year 1799, an expedition having been planned for Holland, for the
purpose of restoring the Prince of Orange to the Stadtholdership, Sir Ralph
was again selected to take the chief command. The troops destined for this
service being assembled on the coast of Kent, sailed on the 13th of August,
under convoy of the fleet which was commanded by Vice- Admiral Mitchell;
and, after encountering heavy gales, came to anchor off the Texel, on the 22d
of the month. On the 27th, the troops were disembarked to the south-west of
the Holder point, without opposition. Scarcely had they begun to move, how-
ever, when they were attacked by General Daendels, and a warm, but irregular,
action was kept up from five o'clock in the morning till five in the afternoon,
after which the enemy retired, leaving the British in possession of a ridge of
sand-hills stretching along the coast from south to north. In this day's evolu-
tions, the enemy lost upwards of one thousand men, and the British about half
that number. Encouraged by this success, Sir Ralph Abercromby determined
to seize upon the Holder next morning, when he would be in possession of a
seaport, an arsenal, and a fleet The brigades of Generals Moore and Burrard
were ordered to be in readiness to make the attack early in the morning; but
the garrison was withdrawn through the night, leaving a considerable train of
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
SIR RiLFH ABERCROMBY-
artillery, a naval magazine, thirteen ships of war, and three Indiaraen, which
fell Into the hands of the British without opposition, Admiral Mitchell, having
shipped pilots at the Helder, immediately stood down into the Tcxei, and
offered battle to the Dutch fleet lying there ; the whole of which, consisting of
twelve sail of the line, surrendered to the British admiral, the sailors refusing
to fight, and compelling their officers to give up the ships for the service of the
Prince of Orange. Taking the surrender of the fleet as the criterion of Dutch
feeling, the most extravagant hopes of the success of the expedition were enter-
tained hy the people of England, The sentiments of the people of Holland,
generally, were not as yet in unison with those of her sailors, and every pre-
caution was taken for defence. The British army, in the meantime, left the
sand-hills, and took np a new position, their right extending to Fetten, on the
German Ocean, and their left to Oude Slays on the Zuyder Zee. A fertile
country was thus laid open to the invaders; while the canal of Zuyper, imme-
diately in front, contributed to strengthen their position, enabling them to
remain on the defensive, until the arrival of additional forces. At day-break
of 11th September, the combined Dutch and French army attacked the
centre and right of the British lines, from St Martins to Fetten, with a
force of 10,000 men, which advanced in three columns; the right, com-
posed of Dutch troops, commanded by General Baendels, against St. Martins ;
the centre, under Do Monceau, upon Zuyper Sluya; and the left, com-
posed entirely of French troops, under General Brune, upon Fetten, The
attack, particularly on the left and centre, was made with the most daring
intrepidity, but was repulsed by the British, and the enemy lost upwards of a
thousand men. On this occasion, General Sir John Moore was opposed to
General Brune, and distinguished himself by the moat masterly manoeuvres;
and, had the British been sufficiently numerous to follow up their advantage,
the United Provinces might have shaken off the French yoke even at this early
period. The want of numbers was felt too late ; but, to remedy the evil, the
Russian troops, engaged for the expedition^ were hastily embarked at the ports
of Cronstadt and Revel, to the number of seventeen thousand, under the com-
mand of General D 'Hermann, and were speedily upon the scene of action. The
Duke of York now arrived as commander-in-chief; and his army, with the
Russians and some battalions of Dutch troops, formed of deserters from the
Batavian army, and volunteers from the Dutch ships, amounted to upwards of
thirty-six thousand men, a force considerably superior to that under Generals
Daendels and Brune* In consequence of this, the Duke of York, in concert
with D*Hermann, made an immediate attack upon the enemy's position, which
was on the heights of Camperdown, and along the high sand-hills, extending
from the sea, in front of Petten, to the town of Bergen-op-zoom. Any defi-
ciency of numbers on the part of the enemy was far more than counterbalanced
hy the advantages of their position ; improved, as it was, by strong entrench-
ments at the intermediate villages, and hy the nature of the ground, intersected
by wet ditches and canals, whose bridges had been removed, and the roads ren-
dered impassable, either by being broken up, or hy means of felled trees stuek in
the earth, and placed horizontally, so as to present an almost impenetrable barrier.
The attack, however, notwithstanding all disadvantages, was made with the most
determined resolution, early on the morning of the 19th of September, and was
successful at all points. By eight o'clock in the morning, the Russians, under
D'Hermann, had made themselves masters of Bergen-op-zoom ; but they no
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
8 SIR RALPH ABRRCROMBY.
sooner found the place evacuated, than they flew upon the spoil, and began to
plunder the citizens, whom they had professedly come to relieve. The vigilant
enemy seized the opportunity to rally his broken battalions, and, being rein-
forced from the garrison at Alkmaar, attacked the dispersed Russians with so
much impetuosity, that the latter were driven from Bergen-op-zoom to Schorel,
with the loss of Generals IVHermann and Tcherchekoff, wounded and taken
prisoners. This failure of the Russians compelled the other three columns of
the British army to abandon the positions they had already stormed, and return
to the station they had left in the morning. For this disappointment three
thousand prisoners taken in the engagement was but a poor recompense ; while
the impression made upon the minds of the Dutch, by the conduct of the Rus-
sians, was incalculably injurious to the objects of the expedition. The conflict
was renewed on the 2d of October, by another attack on the whole line of the
enemy, the troops advancing, as before, in four columns, under Generals Aber-
cromby, D'Esson* Dundas, and Pulteney. The centre ascended the sand-hills
at Campe, and carried the heights of Schorel ; and, after a vigorous contest, the
Russians and British obtained possession of the whole range of sand-hills in the
neighbourhood of Bergen-op-zoom ; but the severest conflict, and that which
decided the fate of the day, was sustained by the first column under Sir Ralph
Abercromby. He had marched without opposition to within a mile of Egmont-
op-Zee, where a large body of cavalry and infantry waited to receive him. Here
Sir John Moore led his brigade to the charge in person ; he was met by a
counter-charge of the enemy, and the conflict was maintained till evening with
unexampled fury. The Marquis of Huntly, who, with his regiment (the
ninety-second), was eminently distinguished, received a wound by a musket-
ball in the shoulder; and General Sir John Moore, after receiving two severe
wounds, was reluctantly carried off the field. Sir Ralph Abercromby had two
horses shot under him, but he continued to animate the troops by his example,
and the most desperate efforts of the enemy were unavailing. Their loss in this
day's engagement was upwards of four thousand men. During the night they
abandoned their posts on the Lange Dyke and at Bergen-op-zoom, and next
day the British took up the positions that had been occupied by the French at
Alkmaar and Egmont-op-Zee. Brune having taken up a strong position be*
tween Beverwyck and the Zuyder Zee, it was determined to dislodge him
before the arrival of his daily-expected reinforcements. In the first movements
made for this purpose the British met with little opposition ; but the Russians,
under General D'Esson, attempting to gain a height near Buccum, were sud-
denly charged by an overwhelming body of the enemy. Sir Ralph Abercromby,
observing the critical situation of the Russians, hastened with his column to
support them. The enemy also sent up fresh forces, and the action, undesignedly
by either party, became general along the whole line, from Lemmen to the sea,
and was contested on both sides with the most determined obstinacy. About
two o'clock in the afternoon, the right and centre of the Anglo-Russian army
began to lose ground, and retire upon Egmont • where, with the co-operation
of the brigade under Major-General Coote, they succeeded in keeping the enemy
in check during the remainder of the day. Evening closed over the comba-
tants, darkened by deluges of rain; yet the work of mutual destruction knew
no intermission. The fire of musketry, which ran in undulating lines along
the hills, with the thunder-flash of the artillery, and the fiery train of the
death-charged shell, lighted up with momentary and fitful blaze the whole
Digitized by
Google
SIR BALPH ABERCROMBY.
9
horizon. About ten o'clock at night, worn out by such a lengthened period
of exertion, though their mutual hostility was not in the least abated, the con-
tending parties ceased fighting, and the British were left in possession of the
ground upon which they had fought, with upwards of two thousand of their
companions lying dead around them. General Brune was, in the course of the
night or next morning, reinforced by an addition of six thousand men, and the
ground he occupied was by nature, and art rendered nearly impregnable. The
British lay through the night exposed to the weather, which was terrible, on
the naked sand-hills ; their clothing drenched, and their arms and ammunition
rendered useless by the rain. Nor was the inhoepitality of the people less than
that of the elements ; the greater part being violently hostile, and the remainder
sunk in supine indifference. Retreat was therefore a measure of necessity, and
next night, the 7th of October, about ten o'clock, amidst a deluge of rain,
the troops marched back to their former station at Petten and Alkmaar, which
they reached without immediate pursuit or any serious loss. To embark, how-
ever, upon such a shore, and in the face of such an enemy, without great loss,
was impossible; and, to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood, an armistice
was proposed by the Duke of York, till the troops should be quietly embarked.
The French general was willing to accede to the proposal, provided the Dutch
fleet were restored, and all forts, dykes, &c, &c, left as they had been taken;
or, if any improvements had been made upon them, in their improved state.
To the first part of the proposal the duke utterly refused for a moment to listen ;
and, being in possession of the principal dykes, he threatened to break them
down and inundate the country. The fleet was not given up ; but in lieu
thereof, eight thousand French and Dutch prisoners, that had been taken pre-
vious to this campaign, were to be restored, with all that had been taken in it.
the Dutch seamen excepted. The troops were instantly embarked, and safely
landed in England, with the exception of the Russians, who were landed in the
islands of Guernsey and Jersey. Though this expedition totally failed in its
main object — the liberation of Holland — it was not without advantage. The
capture of the Dutch fleet, in the then state of affairs, was of very considerable
importance. Nor was the impression it left upon the enemy of the superior
skill of British officers, particularly of the subject of this memoir, and the
daring valour of British troops, without its use in the succeeding periods of
the war.
Sir Ralph Abercromby, now a universal favourite, and esteemed the most
skilful officer in the British service, was appointed in the month of June,
1800, to command the troops sent out upon a secret expedition to the Medi-
terranean, and which were for the time quartered on the island of Minorca,
where he arrived on the 22d of June. The very next day the troops were
embarked for Leghorn, where they arrived on the 9th of July ; but in conse-
quence of an armistice between the French and the Austrian*, they were not
allowed to land. Part of them now proceeded to Malta, and the remainder
sailed back to Minorca. Sir Ralph himself arrived again at that island on the
26th of July, and on the 3d of September the troops were again embarked,
and on the 14th the fleet came to anchor off Europa point in the bay of Gib*
raltar. On the 20th the armament sailed for the bay of Tetuan to procure
water, and on the 23d returned to Gibraltar. In a few days the fleet was again
ordered to rendezvous in the bay of Tetuan ; and, on the 30th of October, the
whole, consisting of upwards of two hundred sail, came to anchor off Cadiz, and
Digitized by
Google
10 SIR RALPH ABERCROMBY.
, — — — * ■■■- „ -
preparations were, .made for lauding the troops without delay. On the 6th the
troops got into the boats, and everything was ready for the disembarkation. In
consequence of a flag of Jruce from the shore, the landing was delayed, and in
the afternoon the troops returned to their respective ships. The negotiations
between the commanders having failed, the order was renewed for disembarking
the troops next day. This order was again countermanded about midnight ;
the morning became stormy, and at break of day the signal was made for the
fleet to weigh, and by the afternoon the whole fleet was again under sail. Pari
of the forces were now ordered for Portugal under the command of general Sir
James Pulteney, and the remainder for Malta, where they arrived about the
middle of November. Than this sailing backwards and forwards, nothing was
ever exhibited more strongly indicative of extreme folly and absolute imbecility
in the national councils.
It was now resolved by the British government to drive the French out
of Egypt, and the armament, which had uselessly rolled about the Medi-
terranean for so many months, was appointed for that purpose. Sir Ralph
Abercromby, accordingly, embarked at Malta on the 20th of December for
the bay of Marmorice, on the coast of Caramania ; where cavalry horses were
to be procured, and stores collected for the expedition, which, it was cal-
culated, would sail for Alexandria by the 1st of January, 1801. Many things,
however, occurred to retard their preparations. Among others of a like nature,
three hundred horses, purchased by order of Lord Elgin, the British ambassador
at Constantinople, were found, when they arrived at Marmorice, so small and
bo galled in their backs, as to be of no use, so that it was found necessary to
shoot some, and to sell others at the low price of a dollar a-piece. It was believed
that Lord Elgin had paid for a very different description of hones, but the per-
sons to whose care they had been confided had found their account in changing
them by the way. Good horses were procured by parties sent into the country
for that purpose ; but the sailing of the expedition was in consequence delayed
till the end of February, instead of the first of January, as had been originally
intended ; and from the state of the weather, and other casualties, the landing
could not be attempted before the 8th of March, on which day it was accom-
plished in Aboukir Bay, in a manner that reflected the highest honour on the
British troops. During this delay Bonaparte had found means to reinforce his
army in Egypt, and furnish it with all necessary stores ; and the weather, pre-
venting the immediate disembarkation of the troops, enabled the French to make
every preparation to receive them. The sand-hills which form the coast, they
had lined with numerous bodies of infantry, and every height was bristling with
artillery. A most tremendous discharge of grape-shot and shells from the bat-
teries, and of musketry from the infantry that lined the shore, seemed for a
moment to stay the progress of the boats as they approached. But it was only
for a moment. The rowers swept through the iron tempest to the beach ; the
troops leaped on shore, formed as they advanced, and rushing up the slippery
declivity without firing a shot, drove the enemy from their position at the point
of the bayonet. Successive bodies, as they were disembarked, proceeded to the
help of their precursors, and, in spite of every obstruction, the whole army was
landed before night ; and Sir Ralph Abercromby advancing three miles into the
country, took up a position with his right resting upon lake Madyeh or Aboukir,
and his left stretching to the Mediterranean. On the 12th he moved forward
to attack the French, who were most advantageously posted on a ridge of sand-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
SIR RALPH ABERCROtfBT. \\
hills, their right towards the sea, and their left resting upon the canal of Alex-
andria* On the morning of the 13th, the army marched in two lines by the left,
to turn the right flank of the enemy. Aware of this, the French, with their
whole cavalry, &a ^ a considerable body of infantry, poured down from the
heights and attacked the heads of both lines, but were repulsed by the advanced
guard, consisting of the 90th and 92nd regiments, with incomparable gallantry.
The first line then formed into two, and advanced, while the second line turned
the right of the French army, and drove it from its position. The enemy,
however, made a regular retreat, and contested every inch of ground till they
had reached the heights of Nicopolis, which form the principal defence of Alex-
andria. Anxious to carry these heights, Sir Ralph Abercromby unfortu-
nately ordered forward the reserve under Sir John Moore, and the second line
under general Hutcheson, to attack (the latter the right, and the former the
left) both flanks at once. Advancing into the open plain, they were exposed to
the whole range of the enemy's shot, which they hod it not in their power to
return; and, after all, the position was found to he commanded by the guns of
the forts of Alexandria, so that it could not have been kept though they had
stormed it. They were accordingly withdrawn, but with a most serious loss of
men ; and the British army took up the ground from which the enemy had been
driven, occupying a position with its right to the sea and its left to the canal of
Alexandria; a situation of great advantage, as it cut off all communication with
Alexandria, except by the way of the Desert In this action, Sir Ralph was
nearly enveloped in the charge of the French cavalry, and was only saved by
the intrepidity of the 00th regiment. The garrison of Aboukir surrendered on
the 18th ; but to counterbalance this advantage, the French commander-in-chief,
Bfenou, arrived at Alexandria from Cairo on the 20th, with a reinforcement of
nine thousand men. Expecting to take the British by surprbe, Menou, next
morning, March the 21st* between three and Four o'clock, attacked their position
with his whole force, amounting to from eleven to twelve thousand men. The
action was commenced by a false attack on the left, their main strength being
directed against the right, upon which they advanced in great force and with a
prodigious noise, shouting, "Vive la France I Vive la Republique 1" They wero
received, however, with perfect coolness by the British troops, who not only
checked the impetuosity of the infantry, but repulsed several charges of cavalry.
Greater courage was perhaps never exhibited than on this occasion : the different
corps of hoth nations rivalled each other in the most determined bravery, and pre-
sented the extraordinary spectacle of an engagement in front, flanks, and rear,
at the same time ; so much were the contending parties intermingled. Nine
hundred of Bonaparte's best soldiers, and from their tried valour denominated
Invincibles, succeeded in turning the right of the British, between the walls of
a large ruin and a battery. Three times did they storm the battery, and three
times were the successive parties exterminated- Getting at last into the rear
of the reserve, the 42nd and the 28th regiments charged them with the bayonet,
and drove them step hy step into the inclosure of the ruin ; where, between six
and seven hundred of them being already stretched lifeless on the ground, the
remainder called out for quarter, and were mode prisoners. Not one of thein
returned,. Equally determined was theiT attack on the centre, and it was there
repelled with equal success. A heavy column having broken through the line,
the cavalry accompanying it wheeled to their left and charged the rear of the
» ; but this charge was broken by the accidental state of the ground, which
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
12 SIB RALPH ABKRCROMBY.
had been excavated into pit-holes about three feet deep for the men to sleep in,
before the arrival of their camp equipage. Over these holes they had to make
their charge, and in consequence were completely routed, more than three hun-
dred of them being left dead on the spot Finding all his movements frustrated,
Menou at length ordered a retreat, which he was able to effect in good order ;
the British having too few cavalry to pursue. His loss was supposed to be
between three and four thousand men, including many officers, among whom
were general Raize, commander of the cavalry, who fell in the field, and two
generals who died of their wounds. The loss of the British was also heavy,
upwards of seventy officers being killed, wounded, and missing. Among these
was the lamented commander-in-chief. Having hastened, on the first alarm,
towards the cannonading, Sir Ralph must have ridden straight among the enemy*
who had already broken the front Jine and got into its rear. It was not yet
day, and, being unable to distinguish friend from foe, he must have been emliar-
rassed among the assailants, but he was extricated by the valour of his troops,
To the first soldier that came up to him, he said, " Soldier, if you know me, don't
name me," A French dragoon, at the moment, conjecturing the prize he had
lost, rode up to Sir Ralph, and made a cut at him, but not being near enough,
only cut through the clothes, and grazed the skin with the point of his sabre.
The dragoon's horse wheeling about, brought him again to the charge, and he
made a second attempt by a lounge, but the sabre passed between Sir Ralph's
side and his rL'ht arm. The dragoon being at the instant shot dead, the sabre
remained with the general* About the same time it was discovered that he had
been wounded in the thit*h, and was entreated to have the wound examined ;
but be treated it as a trifle, and would not for a moment leave the field. No
sooner, however, had the enemy begun to retreat, and the excitement of feeling
tinder which he had been acting to subside, than he fainted from pain and the
loss of blood. His wound was now examined, and a large incision made in order
to extract the hall, but it could not be found. He was then put upon a litter,
and carried aboard the Foudroyant, where he languished till the 23th, when he
died. His body was interred in the burial ground of the cornmandery of the
Grand Master, under the walls of the castle of St Elan, near the town of Valetta
in Malta*
Of the character of Sir Ralph Abercromhy there can be but one opinion
Bred to arms almost from his infancy, he appeared to be formed for command.
His dispositions were always masterly, and his success certain. He had served
in America, in the West Indies, in Ireland, in the Netherlands, in Holland, and
In Egypt, and had in all of these countries gained Jumaidf great distinction. In
the two latter countries, especially, he performed services that were of incalculable
advantage to hb country. The battle of the 21st of March, or of Alexandria,
while it decided the fate of Egypt, left an impression of British skill and of British
valour upon the minds of both her friends and her enemies, that materially con-
tributed to the splendid results of a contest longer in continuance, and involving
interests of greater magnitude, than Britain had ever before been engaged in. The
manner in which ho repressed the licentiousness of the troops in Ireland, wa*
at once magnanimous and effective ; and he ended a life of dignified exertion by a
death worthy of a hero. "We have sustained an irreparable loss," says his suc-
cessor, ** in the person of our never enough to be lamented commander-in-chief,
Sir Ralph Abercromby ; but it h some consolation to those who tenderly loved
him, that, as his life was honourable, so was his death glorious. His memory
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ABBRNETHY. 13
will be recorded in the annals of hie country, will be sacred to every British
soldier, and embalmed in the recollection of a grateful posterity." 1
Sir Ralph Abercromby was married to Mary Anne, daughter of John Menzies
of Fernton, Perthshire ; by whom he had issue four sons and three daughters,
who survived him. On the official account reaching England of the fate of her
lamented husband, his widow was elevated to the peerage, May 28, 1801, as
Baroness Abercromby of Aboukir and Tullibody, with remainder to the heirs-
male of the deceased general; and, on the recommendation of his majesty, the
House of Commons, without one dissentient voice, granted an annuity of two
thousand pounds to Lady Abercromby, and the next two succeeding male heirs
of the body of Sir Ralph Abercromby, to whom the title of Baron Abercromby
should descend. The House of Commons, farther, sensible of the great merits
of this distinguished British commander, voted a monument to his memory, at
the public expense, which was subsequently erected in St Paul's cathedral.
ABERNETHY, John, an eminent writer on physiology. The birth and
parentage of this gentleman were so obscure, that it is impossible to say with *
certainty whether he was a native of Ireland or of Scotland. It is even affirmed
that he was himself ignorant of the country of his birth. Upon the supposition
that he was born in Scotland, his name is introduced in the present work. The
date of his birth is given loosely as 1763-64. His parents having brought him in
his infancy to London, he commenced his education at a day-school in Lothbury,
where he acquired the elements of classical literature. Haying afterwards been
bound apprentice to Mr Charles Blick, surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital,
he had the advantage of attending that noble institution, where he eagerly seized
every opportunity of making himself practically acquainted with his profession.
He also had the advantage of attending the lectures of Mr John Hunter, at the
time when that gentleman was commencing the development of those great
discoveries which have made his name so famous. The curiosity which those
discoveries excited in the public at large, was felt in an uncommon degree by
Mr Abernethy, whose assiduity and ardour as a pupil attracted the notice of the
lecturer, and rendered the latter his friend for life.
While as yet a very young practitioner, his reputation procured for Mr
Abernethy the situation of assistant-surgeon at St Bartholomew's, and he soon
after commenced a course of lectures in the hospital, which, though not rery
successful at first, became in time the most frequented of any in London, so as
to lay the foundation of a medical school of the highest reputation in connection
with this institution. On the death of Sir Charles Blick, his former master,
Mr Abernethy, now considered as the best teacher of anatomy, physiology, and
surgery in the metropolis, was elected surgeon to the hospital.
The first publications of Mr Abernethy were a few Physiological Essays, and
one on Lumbar Abscess, which, with some additions, formed his first volume,
published 1793-97, in 8vo, under the title of "Surgical and Physiological
1 The following panegyric upon Sir Ralph in another character, was written before hia
death:— "As a country gentleman, ever attentive to all within the circle of hia movement,
he stands high in the estimation of hie neighbours and dependents ; and when his military
glory shall have fallen into oblivion, it will be gratefully remembered that he was the friend
of the destitute poor, the patron of usef al knowledge, and the promoter of education among
the meanest of his cottagers: as an instance it may be mentioned, that in the village of
Tullibody, on his paternal estate, a reading school, under bis immediate inspection, was
established many years back."— CampbeWs Journey through Scotland, 4to, 1809; vol. ii.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
U JOHN ABERNETHY.
Essays." These were characterized by the same strong seme, and plain and
forcible illustration, which marked everything that flowed from his tongue and
pen till the end of his life. In 1804 appeared another volume, entitled, " Sur-
gical Observations, containing a classification of tumours, with cases to illustrate
the history of each species ; an account of Diseases," &c. ; and, in 1806, " Sur-
gical Observations, Part Second, containing an account of Disorders of the
Health in general, and of the digestive organs in particular, which accompany
local diseases, and obstruct their cure." The fame of these treatises soon spread,
not only throughout England, but over the continent of Europe; and the
French surgeons, especially, did homage to the masterly spirit they evinced.
Bold and successful operations, practical and lucid descriptions, original and
comprehensive views, all combined to enhance the great reputation of the
author, and to elevate the character of the national school of which he was so
bright an ornament.
In 1814* Mr Abernethy received what might be considered as the highest
honour which his profession had to bestow, in being appointed anatomical lec-
turer to the Royal College of Surgeons. An aneadote illustrative of his sound
integrity is told in reference to this era of his life. A fellow of the college
having remarked to him, that now they should have something new, Mr Aber-
nethy seriously asked him what he meant. " Why," said the other, " of course
you will brush up the lectures which you have, been so long delivering at St
Bartholomew's Hospital, and let us have them in an improved form." "Do
you take me for a fool or a knave? 1 ' rejoined Mr Abernethy, " I have always
given the students at the Hospital that to which they are entitled— the best
produce of my mind. If I could have made my lectures to them better, I would
instantly have made them so. I will give the College of Surgeons precisely
the same lectures, down to the smallest details." In the year of this honourable
appointment, he published, " An Inquiry into the Probability and Rationality
of Mr Hunter's Theory of Life'; being the subject of the two first lectures
delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of London." The aim of these
lectures was to elucidate the doctrine previously laid down by Mr Hunter, that
" life, in general, is some principle of activity added by the will of Omnipotence
to organized structure, an immaterial soul being superadded, in man, to the
structure and vitality which he possesses in common with other animals."
Of this work, it is generally allowed that the intentions are better than the
philosophy.
Previously to this period, Mr Abernethy had published other treatises besides
those already named. One of the most remarkable was, " Surgical Observa-
tions on the Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases, and on
Aneurism," 8vo, 1809. His memorable cases of tying the iliac artery for
aneurism are detailed in this volume ; cases which may almost be said to form
an era in adventurous surgical experiment. Mr Abernethy also wrote works
on " Diseases resembling Syphilis, and on Diseases of the Urethra;" "On
Injuries of the Head, and Miscellaneous Subjects ;" and another volume of
Physiological Essays, He was likewise the author of the anatomical and
physiological articles in Rees*s Cyclopedia, previous to the article u Canal"
Among his various accomplishments, must be ranked a considerable acquaintance
with chemistry ; and one of his numerous honours is the having, in company
with Mr Howard, discovered fulminating mercury.
Besides his business as a lecturer, Mr Abernethy enjoyed a vast and lucrative
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN ABERXETHTf. 15
practice aa a surgeon. His manner in both capacities was marked by many
eccentricities, but particularly in the latter* He could not endure the tedious
nod confused narratives which patients are apt to lay before a consulting surgeon,
and, in checking- these, was not apt to regard much the rules of good-breeding
Considerable risks were thus encountered for the sake of his advice ; but this
was generally so excellent, that those who required it were seldom afraid to
hazard the slight offence to their feelings with which it was liable to be accom-
panied. Many anecdotes of Mr Abemethy's rencounters with his patients are
preserved in the profession. The two following are given in Sir James Eyre'a
recent work, "The Stomach and its Difficulties :'*— u A very talkative lady,
who had wearied the temper of Mr Abernethy, which was at all times impatient
of gabble, was told by him, the first moment that he could get a chance of
speaking, to be good enough to put out her tongue. * Now, pray, madam,' said
he, playfully, 'keep it out/ The hint was taken. He rarely met with his
match, but on one occasion he fairly owned that he had. He was sent for to
an innkeeper, who had had a quarrel with his wife, and who had scored his
f;ice with her nails, so that the poor man waa bleeding, and much disfigured,
Mr Abernethy considered this an opportunity not to be lost for admonishing
ihe offender, and said, * Madam, are you not ashamed of yourself to treat your
husband thus; the husband, who is the head of all, your head, madam, in fact?*
* Well, doctor,' fiercely retorted the virago, * and may I not scratch my own
head?* Upon this her friendly adviser, after giving directions for the benefit
of the patient^ turned upon his heel, and confessed himself beaten for once,"
But abruptness and rudeness were not his only eccentricities. He carried prac-
tical benevolence to a pitch as far from the common line as any of his other
peculiarities. Where poverty and disease prevented patients from waiting upon
him in his own house, he was frequently known, not only to visit them con-
stantly, and at inconvenient distances, without fee or reward, but generously
to supply them from his own purse with what their wants required. Perhaps
the most striking, out of the numerous anecdotes which have been related of
him, in illustration of his eccentricities, is one descriptive of his courtship, or
rather of his no -courtship, " While attending a lady for several weeks, he
observed those admirable qualifications in her daughter, which he truly esteemed
to be calculated to make the marriage state happy. Accordingly, on a Saturday,
when taking leave of his patient, he addressed her to the following purport : —
* You are now 00 well that I need not see you after Monday next, when I shall
come and pay you my farewell visit. But, in the meantime, I wish you and
your daughter seriously to consider the proposal I am now about to make. It
is abrupt and unceremonious, I am aware ; but the excessive occupation of my
time, by my professional duties, affords me no leisure to accomplish what I
desire by the more ordinary course of attention and solicitation. My annual
receipts amount to £ , and I can settle j£ on my wife ; my character is
generally known to the public, so that you may readily ascertain what it is.
I hare seen in your daughter a tender and affectionate child, an assiduous and
careful nurse, and a gentle and ladylike member of a family ; such a person
must be all that a husband could covet, and I offer my hand and fortune for her
acceptance. On Monday, when I call, I shall expect your determination ; for
I really have not time for the routine of courtship.' In this humour the lady
was wooed and won, and the union proved fortunate in every respect, A hap-
pier couple never existed.'*
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
16 ALEXANDER AD|M.
After a life of great activity, and which proved of much immediate and
remote service to mankind, the subject of this memoir expired, at Enfield, on
the 20th of April, 1831.
ADAM, Alexander, an eminent grammarian and writer on Roman antiqui-
ties, was born at Coats of Bnrgie, in the parish of RafFord, and county of Moray,
about the month of June, 1741. His father, John Adam, rented one of those
small farms which were formerly so common in the north of Scotland. In his
earlier years, like many children of his own class, and even of a class higher
removed above poverty, he occasionally tended his father's cattle. Being des-
tined by his parents, poor as they were, for a learned profession, he was kept at
the parish school till he was thought fit to come forward as a bursar, at the
university of Aberdeen. He made this attempt, but failed, and was requested
by the judges to go back and study for another year at school. This incident
only stimulated him to fresh exertions. He was prevented, however, from
renewing his attempt at Aberdeen, by the representations of the Rev. Mr Wat-
son, a minister at Edinburgh, and a relation of his mother, who induced him to
try his fortune in the metropolis. He removed thither early in the year 1758;
but, it appears, without any assured means of supporting himself during the
progress of his studies. For a considerable time, while attending the classes at
the college, the only means of subsistence he enjoyed, consisted of the small sum
of one guinea per quarter, which he derived from Mr Alan Macconochie, (after-
wards Lord Meadowbank), for assisting him in the capacity of a tutor. The
details of his system of life at this period, as given by his biographer Mr Hen-
derson, are painfully interesting. " He lodged in a small room at Restalrig, in
the north-eastern suburbs ; and for this accommodation he paid fourpence a- week.
All his meals, except dinner, uniformly consisted of oat-meal made into porridge,
together with small beer, of which he only allowed himself half a bottle at a
time. When he wished to dine, he purchased a penny loaf at the nearest baker's
shop ; and, if the day was fair, he would despatch his meal in a walk to the
Meadows or Hope Park, which is adjoining to the southern part of the city ;
but if the weather was foul, he had recourse to some long and lonely stair, which
he would climb, eating his dinner at every step. By this means all expense for
cookery was avoided, and he wasted neither coal nor candles ; for, when he was
chill, he used to run till his blood began to glow, and his evening studies were
always prosecuted under the roof of some one or other of his companions."
There are many instances, we believe, among Scottish students, of the most
rigid self-denial, crowned at length by splendid success ; but there is certainly
no case known in which the self-denial was so chastened, and the triumph so
grand, as that of Dr Adam. In 1761, when he was exactly twenty, he stood a
trial for the situation of head teacher in George Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh,
and was successful. In this place he is said to have continued about three
years ; during which, he was anxiously engaged in cultivating an intimacy with
the classics— reading, with great care, and in a critical manner, the works of
Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Cicero, and Livy. His views were now
directed towards the church, and ha was on the eve of being licensed as a
preacher of the gospel, when suddenly a prospect opened befoie him of becoming
assistant, with the hope of being eventually the successor, of Mr Matheson,
rector of the High School. This appointment he obtained, and in 1771 the
increased infirmities of Mr Matheson threw the whole of this charge into the
hands of Mr Adam.
Digitized by
Google
ALEXANDER ADAM. 17
The time when he assumed this respectable office was very fortunate. Every
department of knowledge in Scotland was at this period adorned by higher names
than had ever before graced it ; and hence the office of Master in the principal
elementary school of the country presented to a man of superior qualifications
a fair opportunity of distinguishing himself. This opportunity was not lost
upon Mr Adam. He devoted himself with singular assiduity to his duties ;
and, under his auspices, the school gradually increased in numbers and reputa-
tion. Soon after his appointment, he began to compose a series of works to
facilitate the study of the Latin language. His Rudiments of Latin and English
Grammar were published in 1772, and, though composed in a style which
appeared to the generality of teachers as a dreadful schism and heresy, met with
the approbation of a discerning few, whose praise was sufficient to overbalance
the censure of the multitude. His offence consisted in the novel attempt to
teach the grammatical rules of Latin in English prose, instead of Latin prose
or verse, which latter had been the time-honoured fashion of the schools both of
England and Scotland, since the days of the Reformation. The daring innovator
was assailed with a storm of abuse by numerous individuals, more especially by
those of his own profession.
Among those who took an active part in condemning his work, Dr Gilbert
Stuart was very conspicuous. This extraordinary litterateur was a relation of
Ruddiman; and, as an additional incentive to his hostility, conceived that Adam
had gained the rectorship of the High School more by interest than by merit
He accordingly filled the periodical works of the day with ridicule and abuse
directed against the unfortunate grammar. Amongst other pasquinades, appeared
an account, in Latin, of a Roman funeral, in which that work was personified
as the dead body, while the chief mourner was meant to represent Mr Adam,
sorrowing for the untimely fete of his best-beloved child. The other persons
officiating are introduced under the technical terms in use among the ancient
Romans ; and, to heighten the ridicule, and give it aid from local circumstances,
the ingenious satirist placed in front of the mourners, a poor lunatic of the name
of Duff, well known in Edinburgh at the time for his punctual attendance at
the head of all funeral processions. While his work was still the subject of
i ensure, the ingenious author was partly compensated for all his sufferings by
a degree of LL.D., which was conferred upon him by the College of Edinburgh,
tn 1780. Some years after, the grammar began gradually to make its way in
schools, and finally he had the satisfaction of seeing it adopted in his own
seminary. Among the great names which at an early period had sanctioned it
with their approbation, are those of Lord Blames, Bishop Lowth, and Dr Yin-
cent, Master of St Paul's school.
The next work of Dr Adam is entitled, A Summary of Geography and His-
tory, but the date of the first edition is not mentioned by his biographer. In
1791, he published his excellent compendium of Roman Antiquities, and in
1800 his Classical Biography ; for the copyright of the former he received
£600, and for that of the latter £900. Dr Adam's last, and perhaps his most
laborious work, was his Latin Dictionary, published in 1805. Towards the
. beginning, his illustrations are brief, but, as he proceeds, they gradually become
more copious. It was his intention to add an Engliah-and-Latin part, and to
enlarge the other to a considerable extent. In this favourite plan he had made
some progress at the time of his death.
On the 13th of December, 1809, Dr Adam was seized in the High School with
Digitized by VjOOQ l€
18 ROBERT ADAM.
on alarming indisposition, which had all the appearance of apoplexy. Having
been conducted home, he was put to bed, and enjoyed a sound sleep, which
appeared to have arrested the progress of the disease, for he was afterwards able
to walk about his room. The apoplectic symptoms, however, returned in a
few days, and he fell into a state of stupor. His last words marked the gradual
darkening of the ray of life and intellect beneath this mortal disorder. He said,
" It grows dark, boys — you may go — " his mind evidently wandering at that
moment to the scene where he had spent the better part of his life. This twi-
light soon settled down into the night of death : he expired early in the morn-
ing of the 18th December, 1809. The death of the amiable and excellent Dr
Adam operated, among his numerous friends and admirers, like a shock of elec-
tricity. Men of all ages and denominations were loud in lamenting an event
which had bereaved them of a common benefactor. The effect of the general
feeling was a resolution to honour him with what is a very rare circumstance
in Scotland, a public funeral.
The life of Dr Adam proves, had any proof been wanting, the possibility of
rising to distinction in this country from any grade of life, and through what-
soever intervening difficulties. In 1758 and 1759 he was a student living at the
inconceivably humble rate of four guineas a-year ; in ten years thereafter, he had
qualified himself for, and attained, a situation which, in Scotland, is an object
of ambition to men of considerable literary rank. The principal features of his
character were, unshaken independence and integrity, ardour in the cause of
public liberty, the utmost purity of manners and singleness of heart, and a most
indefatigable power of application to the severest studies. " His external appear-
ance was that of a scholar who dressed neatly for his own sake, but who had
never incommoded himself with fashion in the cut of his coat, or in the regula-
tion of his gait. Upon the street he often appeared in a studious attitude, and
in winter always walked with his hands crossed, and thrust into his sleeves.
His features were regular and manly, and he was above the middle size. In his
well-formed proportions, and in his firm regular pace, there appeared the marks
of habitual temperance. He must have been generally attractive in his early
days, and, in his old age, his manners and conversation enhanced the value and
interest of every qualification. When he addressed his scholars, when he com-
mended excellence, or when he was seated at his own fireside with a friend on
whom he could rely, it was delightful to be near him ; and no man could leave
his company without declaring that he loved Dr Adam."
ADAM, Robert, an eminent architect, was born at Edinburgh in the year
1728. His father, William Adam, of Maryburgh, in the county of Fife, also
distinguished himself as an architect ; Hopetoun House, and the Royal Infir-
mary at Edinburgh, are specimens of his abilities. Robert, the second son,
inherited his father's taste, and lived in a time more favourable to its develop-
ment. He was educated in the university of Edinburgh, where he enjoyed the
kind attentions of Robertson, Smith, and Ferguson; all of whom were his father's
friends. As he advanced in life, he was on friendly and intimate terms with
Archibald Duke of Argyle, Sir Charles Townshend, and the Earl of Mansfield.
About the year 1754, with a view to improve his knowledge of architecture, he
travelled on the continent, and resided three years in Italy, where he surveyed
the magnificent specimens of Roman architecture ; the buildings of the ancients,
in his opinion, being the proper school of the architectural student. But while
he beheld with much pleasure the remains of the public buildings of the Romans,
Digitized by
Google
ROBERT ADAH. 19
lie regretted to perceive that hardly a vestige of their private houses or villas
was anywhere to be found. In tracing the progress of Roman architecture, he
had remarked that it had declined previous to the age of Dioclesian ; but he was
also convinced that the liberality and munificence of that emperor had revived,
daring his reign, a better taste, and had formed artists who were capable of imi-
tating the more elegant styles of the preceding ages. He had seen this remark-
ably exemplified in the public baths at Rome, which were erected by Dioclesian.
The interest which he felt in this particular branch of Roman remains, and his
anxiety to behold a good specimen of the private buildings of this wonderful
people, induced him to undertake a voyage to Spalatro in Dalmatia, to visit and
examine the palace of Dioclesian, where, after his resignation of the empire, in
305, that emperor spent the last nine years of his life. He sailed from Venice
in 1754, accompanied by two experienced draughtsmen, and M. Clerisseau, a
French antiquary and artist. On their arrival at Spalatro, they found that the
palace had not suffered less from dilapidations by the inhabitants, to procure
materials for building, than from the injuries of time; and that, in many places,
the very foundations of the ancient structures were covered with modern houses.
When they began their labours, the vigilant jealousy of the government was
alarmed, and they were soon interrupted ; for suspecting their object was to
view and make plans of the fortifications, the governor issued a peremptory
order, commanding them to desist. It was only through the influence and
mediation of General Graeme, the commander-in-chief of the Venetian forces
(probably a Scotsman), that they were at length permitted to resume their
labours; and in five weeks they finished plans and views of the remaining frag-
ments, from which they afterwards executed perfect designs of the whole build-
ing. Mr Adam soon after returned to England, and speedily rose to professional
eminence. In 1762, he was appointed architect to their majesties, and in the
year following he published, in one volume large folio, " Ruins of the Palace
of the emperor Dioclesian at Spalatro, in Dalmatia." This splendid work con-
tains seventy-one plates, besides letter-press descriptions. He had at this time
been elected a member of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, and in 1768
he was elected to represent Kinross-shire in Parliament; which was probably
owing to the local influence of his family. A seat in the House of Commons
being incompatible with employment under the crown, he now resigned his
office as architect to their majesties ; but continued to prosecute his professional
career with increasing reputation, being much employed by the English nobility
and gentry in constructing new and embellishing ancient mansions. In the
year 1773, in conjunction with his brother, James Adam, who also rose to
considerable reputation as an architect, he commenced " The Works in Archi-
tecture of R. and J. Adam," which before 1776 had reached a fourth number,
and was a work of equal splendour with the one above referred to. The four
numbers contain, among other productions, Sion House, Caen Wood, Luton
Park House, the Gateway of the Admiralty, and the General Register House
at Edinburgh ; all of which have been admired for elegant design and correct
taste ; though the present age, in its rage for a severe simplicity, might desire the
absence of certain minute ornaments, with which the Adams were accustomed
to fill up vacant spaces. Before this period, the two brothers had reared in
London that splendid monument of their taste, the Adelphi ; which, however,
was too extensive a speculation to be profitable. They were obliged, in 1774,
to obtain an act of parliament to dispose of the houseai>y way of lottery. The
Digitized by
Google
20 HENRY ADAMSON.
chief Scottish designs of Adam, besides the Register Office, were the new addi-
tions to the University of Edinburgh, and the Infirmary of Glasgow. " We
have also seen and admired/' says a biographer, * elegant designs executed by
Mr Adam, which were intended for the South Bridge and South Bridge Street
of Edinburgh ; and which, if they had been adopted, would hare added much
to the decoration of that part of the town. But they were considered unsuit-
able to the taste or economy of the times, and were therefore rejected. Strange
incongruities," continues the same writer, "appear in some buildings which
have been erected from designs by Mr Adam. But of these it must be observed,
that they have been altered or mutilated in execution, according to the conve-
nience or taste of the owner ; and it is well known that a slight deviation changes
the character and mars the effect of the general design. A lady of rank was
furnished by Mr Adam with the design of a house ; but on examining the build-
ing after it was erected, he was astonished to find it out of all proportion. On
inquiring the cause, he was informed that the pediment he had designed was
too small to admit a piece of new sculpture which represented the arms of the
family, and, by the date which it bore, incontestably proved its antiquity. It
was therefore absolutely necessary to enlarge the dimensions of the pediment
to receive this ancient badge of family honour, and sacrifice the beauty and
proportion of the whole building. We have seen a large public building which
was also designed by Mr Adam ; but when it was erected, the length was cur-
tailed of the space of two windows, while the other parts remained according to
the original plan. It now appears a heavy unsightly pile, instead of exhibiting
that elegance of proportion and correctness of style which the faithful execu-
tion of Mr Adam's design would have probably given it To the last period of
his life, Mr Adam displayed the same vigour of genius and refinement of taste ;
for in the space of one year immediately preceding his death, he designed eight
great public works, besides twenty-five private buildings, so various in style,
and beautiful in composition, that they have been allowed by the best judges to
be sufficient of themselves to establish his fame as an unrivalled artist." Mr
Adam died on the 3d of March, 1792, by the bursting of a blood-Teasel, in the
sixty-fourth year of his age, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It remains
only to be said that, while his works commanded the admiration of the public,
his natural suavity of manners, joined to his excellent moral character, had
made a deep impression upon the circle of his own private friends. His brother
James, who has been referred to as associated with him in many of his works,
died October 20, 1794.
AD AMSON, Henry, a poet of the seventeenth century, and probably a rela-
tive of the subject of the following article, was the son of James Adamson, who
was dean of guild in Perth, anno 1600, when the Gowrie conspiracy took place
in that city. The poet was educated for the pulpit, and appears to have made
considerable progress in classical studies, as he wrote Latin poetry above medio-
crity. He enjoyed the friendship and esteem of a large circle of the eminent
men of that age, particularly Drummond of Hawthornden, who induced him,
in 1698, to publish a poem entitled, " Mirthful Musings for the death of Mr
Gall ;" being in fact a versified history of his native town, full of quaint alle-
gorical allusions suitable to the taste of that age. A new edition of this curious
poem, which had become exceedingly rare, was published in 1774, with illus-
trative notes by Mr James Cant. The ingenious author died in 1639, the year
after the publication of his poem.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
PATRICK ADAMSON. 21
AD AMBON, Patrice, Archbishop of St Andrews. This prelate, whose
name occupies so remarkable a place in the history of the Scottish Reformation.
was born of humble parents, in the town of Perth, in the year 1543* Such is
the date assigned ; but we think it may be safely carried two or three years
farther back, as we find his name in the roll of the first General Assembly held
by the reformed church of Scotland, in 1560, as one of those persons belonging
to St Andrews who were fit for ministering and teaching ; while* only two
years after, we find him minister of Ceres, in Fifeshire, with a commission to
plant churches from Dee to Etham. Great as were the emergencies of the
infant kirk at this time from the want of ministers, it is scarcely to be thought
that it would have appointed to such important charges a youth who had not
yet attained the age of twenty. Previous to this period he had studied at the
university of St Andrews, where it is likely he was distinguished by those talents
and literary acquirements that subsequently brought him into such notice, and,
after having gone through the usual course, he graduated as Master of Arts.
His name at this period was Patrick Conateane, or Constance, or Constant! ne,
for in all these forms it is written indifferently ; hut how it afterwards passed
into Adsmson we have no means of ascertaining. At the close of his career at
college, he opened a school in Fife, and soon obtained the notice and patronage
of James M/Gill of Ranked lor, one of the judges of the Court of Session,
who possessed considerable political influence. He had not long been minis-
ter of Ceres, when we find him impatient to quit his charge ; and accord-
ingly, in 1564* he applied to the General Assembly for leave ** to pass to other
countries for a time, to acquire increase of knowledge," but was inhibited to
leave his charge without the Assembly's license. That license, however, he
seems at length to have obtained, and probably, also, before the meeting of the
Assembly in the following year, when they published such stringent decisions
against those ministers who abandon their spiritual charges. Patrick Con-
stance, or, as we shall henceforth call him, A damson, now appointed tutor of
the son of M'GiU of Rankeillor, passed over with his young charge, who was
destined for the study of the civil law, to Paris, at that time the chief school ot
the distinguished jurisconsults of Europe.
Adamson had not been long in Paris when such adventures befel him as
might well make him sigh for the lowly obscurity of Ceres. In the course of
events that had occurred in Scotland, during his absence, were the marriage of
Queen Mary and Henry I>arnley, and the birth of their infant, afterwards
James VI. ; and Adamson, who at this time was more of a courtier than a
politician, and more of a poet than either, immediately composed a triumphant
4 * carmen" on the event, entitled, Screnissimi et nolnlissimi Scotit£ y Angliat^
Franciwt <£ IFibemito Prindpi$ t Henrici Stuarti Hlustrutimi Ueroti, ae If arias
Rcoifuz amplUtimm FiUi, Genvthliaeum. The very title was a startling one, both
to Fiance and England, the great political questions of which countries it at once
prejudged, by giving them the Scottish queen for their lawful, indisputable
sovereign. Had this poem, which was published a few days after the event,
hcen produced in England, its author would scarcely have escaped an awkward
examination before the Star Chamber ; but as it was, he was within the reach
of Catherine de Medicis, to the full as jealous of her authority as Elizabeth
herself, and far more merciless in exercising it. Adamson was therefore re*
warded for his Latin poetry by a six months* imprisonment, which perhsps
would hare been succeeded by a worse infliction, hod it not been for the media-
Digitized by
Google
22 PATRICK ADAMSON.
tion of Mary herself, backed by that of some of her chief nobles. It did not at
that time suit the policy of France to break with Scotland, and the poet wa»
set at liberty. Having thus had a sufficient sojourn in Paris, Adamson repaired
with his pupil to Bourges, where both entered themselves as students of law,
a science which the Scottish ministers of the day frequently added to that oi
theology. Even here, however, he was not long allowed to remain in safety.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew — that foul national blot of France, and
anomaly of modern history — burst out with the suddenness of a tornado across
a tranquil sky ; and, amidst the ruin that followed, no Protestant, over the
whole extent of France, could be assured of his life for a single hour. Adamson
had his full share of the danger, and narrowly escaped its worst, by finding
shelter in a lowly hostelry ; the master of which was afterwards flung from the
top of his own house, and killed on the pavement below, for having given
shelter to heretics. While immured in this dreary confinement, that continued
for seven months, and which he fitly termed his sepulchre, Adamson appears
to have consoled himself with Latin poetry upon themes suited to his condi-
tion ; one attempt of this nature being the tragedy of Herod, and the other a
version of the book of Job. We may notice here, that he had not been lost
sight of during this protracted residence in France, by his brethren, or the
church at home ; and that, in the year previous to the massacre, the General
Assembly had once and again desired him to return, and resume his ministry.
But to this earnest request he, in the first instance, craved leisure for careful
deliberation, and after, sent a full answer, evidently in the negative, as he did
not see fit to comply. But the perils in which he was afterwards involved, and
the long confinement he endured, had probably brought him to a more submis-
sive, or at least a safer mode of thinking; for, as soon as he was able to emerge,
one of the first uses which he made of his liberty was to make preparations
for returning home, and resuming those ministerial labours which he had good
cause to regret he ever had abandoned.
On the return of Patrick Adamson to Scotland, he seems to have been favour-
ably received by his brethren, notwithstanding his previous recusancy. His
reception, indeed, could scarcely have been otherwise than cordial, as he had so
lately been all but a martyr for Protestantism in the midst of a terrible perse-
cution. His return was at a critical period; for the archbishopric of St
Andrews was at that time vacant, and, notwithstanding the Presbyterian doc-
trine of parity, which had been laid down as a fundamental principle of the
Scottish church, the chief prelatic offices were still continued, through the
overbearing influence of those nobles who now directed the government of the
country. But it was from no love of Episcopacy in the abstract that these
magnates continued such charges, obnoxious though they were to the church
and the people at large, but that they might derive from them a profitable
revenue, as lay proprietors of the livings. In this way the Earl of Morton had
acquired a claim to the revenues of the archbishopric of St Andrews, and duly
needed some ecclesiastic who could wear the title, and discharge its duties, for
a small percentage of the benefice. It was a degrading position for a church-
man, and yet there were too many who were willing to occupy it, either from
a vain-glorious love of the empty name, or an ambitious hope of converting it
into a substantial reality. Among these aspirants for the primacy of Scotland,
Patrick Adamson was suspected to be one ; and it was thought that he expected
to succeed through the influence of his patron, M'Gill of Bankeillor. These
Digitized by
Google
PATRICK ADAHSON. 23
surmises* his subsequent conduct but too well justified. But Morton bad
already made hi a election in favour of John Douglas, who was inducted into
the office, notwithstanding the earnest remonstrances of John Knox* The con*
duct of Adamson on this occasion was long after remembered when he would
have wished it to be forgot. The week after the induction, and when the
greatest concourse of people was expected, he ascended the pulpit and delivered
a vehement and sarcastic sermon against the Episcopal office as then exercised in
Scotland. " There are three sorts of bishops/ ' he said ; " My lord Bishop, my
lord's Bishop, and the Lord's Bishop. My lord Bishop was in the papistry ;
my lord's Bishop is now, when my lord gets the benefice, and the bishop serves
for nothing but to make his title sure ; and the Lord's Bishop is the true
minister of the gospel." He saw that, for the present at least, he could not be
primate of St Andrews, and therefore he turned his attention to the more humble
offices of the church. And there, indeed, whatever could satisfy the wishes of
a simple presbyter was within his reach ; for he was not only in general esteem
among his brethren, but highly and justly valued for his scholarship^ in conse-
quence of his catechism of Calvin in Latin heroic verse, which he had written
in France, and was about to publish in Scotland with the approbation of the
General Assembly. He now announced his willingness to resume the duties of
the ministry ; but his intimation wss coupled with a request that had some-
what of a secular and selfish appearance. It was, that a pension which had
been granted to him by the late regent out of the teinds of the parsonage of
Glasgow, should he secured to htm - and that the procurators of the Assembly
should be commissioned to aid him to that effect. His request was granted,
and he once more became a minister. The town of Paisley was his sphere of
duty, according to the appointment of the Assembly, In addition to this, he
was subsequently appointed commissioner of Galloway, an office which resembled
that of a bishop as to its duties, but divested of all its pre-eminence and emolu-
ment Some of the best men of the kirk had undertaken this thankless office
with alacrity, and discharged its duties with diligence ; but such was not the
case with Patrick A dam son ; and when his remissness as a commissioner was
complained of to the General Assembly, he acknowledged the justice of the
accusation, but pleaded in excuse, that no stipend was attached to the office.
Of the labours of A dam son while minister of Paisley, no record has been pre-
served. His time there, however, was brief, as a new sphere was opened to his
ambition. The great subject of anxiety at this period in the church, was the
construction of the Book of Policy, otherwise called the Second Book of Disci-
pline, and procuring its ratification by the government ; hut the chief obstacle
in the way was the Earl of Morton, now regent, whose principal aim, besides
enriching himself with the ecclesiastical revenues, was to bring the two churches
of England and Scotland into as close a conformity as possible, in order to facili-
tate the future union of the two kingdoms under the reign of his young master,
James VL Here it is that we find A damson busy. He became an active
negotiator for the Book of Policy , and while he managed to secure the confi-
dence of the leading men in the church, he ingratiated himself into the favour of
the regent j so that when the latter chose him for his chaplain, the brethren seem
to hare hoped that the accomplishment of their purpose would be facilitated by
having such an advocate at court- But never were ecclesiastics more thoroughly
disappointed in their hopes from such a quarter. The archbishopric of St
Andrews had again become vacant, and Morton nominated Adamson to the
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
24 PATRICK ADAMSON.
eee ; who, on receiving the appointment, began even already to show that he
would hold it independently of the authority of the church, by refusing to
submit to the usual trial and examination of the Assembly. In this he persisted,
and entered office against the acts and ordinances of the Assembly provided for
such occasions. While chaplain to the regent, he had been wont, while preach-
ing, and giving his glosses upon texts of Scripture, to say, "The prophet would
mean this " — a phrase so usual with him on such occasions, that his hearers
could not help noticing it. At length, when he became primate of Scotland,
Captain Montgomery, one of the regent's officers, exclaimed, with dry humour,
" I never knew what the prophet meant till now !" As Adamson's entering
into the archbishopric was such an act of contravention to the authority of
the church, the Assembly, at one of its meetings in 1577, resolved to institute
proceedings against the offender. But even this formidable danger he was able
to avert for the time with his wonted craft. He professed the utmost humility,
and offered to lay down his office at the feet of the Assembly, and be ordered
at their pleasure, but represented how desirable it would be to postpone all such
proceedings until the Book of Policy had been finished, and ratified by the
regent. The matter was thus reduced to a mere question of time, and his
suggestion prevailed.
The great subject now at issue was the Book of Ecclesiastical Policy, the
Magna Charta of the Church of Scotland, upon the passing of which its rights
and liberties as a national church were at stake. It was, as might have been
expected, completely Presbyterian in its discipline, and subversive of that epis-
copal rule which the court was labouring to establish. Among these enact-
ments, it was decreed, that no bishop should be designated by his title, but his
own name, as a brother, seeing he belonged to a church that has but one Lord,
even Christ — that no bishops should thenceforth be appointed in it ; and that
no minister should accept the office on pain of deprivation. Against such con-
clusions it is not wonderful that Adamson demurred. But as himself and the
bishop of Aberdeen constituted the entire minority in the Assembly, his oppo-
sition went no farther than to procrastinate any final conclusion. But the
Policy was at length concluded, and ready to be presented to the government,
and for this, Adamson had reserved his master stroke. The book was to be
subscribed by every member individually, but this form the archbishop opposed.
" Nay," he said, " we have an honest man, our clerk, to subscribe for all, and
it would derogate from his faithfulness and estimation if we should all severally
subscribe.'* The difference appeared so trivial, that the brethren assented to
the proposal, although some of them seem to have entertained a lurking sus-
picion that all was not right ; so that Mr Andrew Hay, minister of Renfrew,
could not help exclaiming, " Well, if any man comes against this, or denies it
hereafter, he is not honest." He soon showed at whom his suspicions pointed,
by stepping up to Adamson, and saying to him in the presence of three or four
by-standers, " There is my hand, Mr Patrick ; if you come against this here-
after, consenting now so thoroughly to it, I will call you a knave, were it never
so publicly.'* The other accepted the challenge, and thus the matter ended
for the present. The Book of Policy was to be presented to the Lords of
Articles for ratification on the part of the government ; and strangely enough,
Adamson was commissioned to present it. Morton and the lords asked him if
he had given his assent to these enactments ; to which he answered that he hod
not, and that he had refused to subscribe to them. Here was a loop-hole of
Digitized by
Google
PATRICK ADAMSOST.
25
escape for the council : the Arch bishop of St. Andrews had withheld his assent,
find they could do no lees than follow the example. The Book waa rejected,
and the ministers were left to divine the cause of the refusal. But Andrew
[lay, on inquiring of several members of council, who told him the particulars,
and laid the whole blame of the refusal on Adamson, soon saw that he had a
pledge to redeem ; and on the archhishop passing by at that instant, he griped
him by the hand, looked him angrily in the face, and exclaimed, in presence of
the others, "O knave, knave, I will crown thee the knave of all knaves !" It is
enough to add here, that the Book of Policy, after having been delayed three
years longer, w T as in 1581 thoroughly ratified and ordained in every point, and
ordered to be registered in the books of the Assembly. As for Adamson, wa
find him employed during this interval in preaching in St Andrews, lecturing
in the college, and attending the meetings of the General Assembly, but with
no greater authority than that of the ordinary brethren. But symptoms even
already had occurred to show, that the court favour upon which he was willing
to build, waa but a sandy foundation, for his powerful patron, the earl of Mor-
ton, had been brought to the block- He forthwith prepared himself, therefore,
to recognize the authority of the kirk in the doctrine of bishops, to which he
had hitherto been opposed, and even ^ave his subscription to the articles of the
Book of Policy, which he had hitherto withheld. This was in St Andrews,
before the celebrated Andrew Melville, and a party of his friends, who were
assembled with him. But all this was insufficient : he must also secure the
countenance of the party in power, whatever for the time it might be ; and for
this purpose he passed over to Edinburgh, and took his seat in the Convention
of Estates- LI ere, however, his reception was so little to his Hking, that he
found he must side wholly with the kirk. He therefore addressed himself to
the ministers of Edinburgh, with professions which his subsequent conduct
showed to be downright hypocrisy. He told them that he had come over to
the court in the spirit of Balaam, on purpose to curse the kirk, and do evil ;
but that God had so wrought with him, that his heart was wholly changed, ao
that he had advocated and voted in the church's behalf— and that henceforth
he would show further and further fruits of his conversion and good meaning.
This self- abasing comparison of himself to Balaam must have staggered tbe
unfavourable suspicious of the most sceptical ; at all events, it did so with tbe
apostolic John iJurie, who rejoiced over the primate a conversion, and wrote a
flattering account of it to James Melville. The latter, in consequence, visited
Adamson upon his return, and told him the tidings he had received, for which
he heartily thanked -God, and offered the archbishop the right hand of Christian
fellowship. The other, still continuing his penitent grimace, described the
change that had passed upon him at great length, which he attributed to the
working of the Spirit within him, Perhaps he overacted his part, for Melville
only observed in reply, " Well, that Spirit is an upright, holy, and constant
Spirit, and will more and more manifest itself in effects ; but it is a fearful thing
to lie against him 1"
It was indeed full time for the Archbishop of St Andrews not only to recover
his lost credit with the kirk, but the community at large. lie was generally
accused of the vices of intemperance and gluttony; he was noted as an unfaith-
ful paymaster, so that he stood upon the score of most of the shopkeepers in the
town i and what was still worse, he was accused of consorting with witches,
and availing himself of their unlawful power I We of the nineteenth century
1- B
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PATRICK ADAMSON.
can laugh at such a charge, and imagine it sufficient not only to disprove itself,
but weaken all the other charges brought against him. But in the sixteenth
century it was no such laughing matter ; for there were not only silly women
in abundance to proclaim themselves witches, but wise men to believe them.
Even the pulpits of England as well as Scotland resounded with sermons against
witchcraft ; and a learned prelate, while preaching before Elizabeth, assured her
Majesty, that the many people who were dying daily, in spite of all the aid of
leechcraft, were thus brought to their end by spells and incantations. 1 While
this was the prevalent belief, a person having recourse to such agency was
wilfully and deliberately seeking help from the devil, and seeking it where he
thought it could best be found. Now, Adamson, among his other offences, had
fallen into this most odious and criminal predicament. He was afflicted with
a painful disease, which he called a " foedity ;" and being unable to obtain relief
from the regular practitioners, he had recourse to the witches of Fife, and
among others, to a notable woman, who pretended to have learned the art of
healing from a physician who had appeared to her after he was dead and buried !
This wretched creature, on being apprehended and convicted of sorcery, or what
she meant to be such, was sentenced to suffer death, as she would have been in
any other country of Europe, and was given in charge to the Archbishop for
execution. But the woman made her escape, and this, it was supposed she did,
through Adamson 's connivance. After this statement, it needs scarcely be won-
dered at, that foremost in the accusations both from the pulpit and in church
courts, the crime of seeking aid from Satan should have been specially urged
against him. The man who will presumptuously attempt "to call spirits from
the vasty deep," incurs the guilt of sorcery whether they come or not.
While such was the evil plight to which the archbishop was reduced, and
out of which he was trying to struggle as he best could, the condition of public
affairs was scarcely more promising for his interests. In the Assembly held in
April, 1582, he had seen Robert Montgomery, Archbishop of Glasgow, who
was his constant ally in every Episcopal movement, arraigned at their bar,
reduced to the most humbling confessions, and dismissed with the fear of depo-
sition hanging over him. In the same year, the Raid of Ruthven had occurred,
by which the royal power was coerced, and presbytery established in greater
authority than ever. Dismayed by these ominous symptoms, Adamson with-
drew from public notice to his castle of St Andrews, where he kept himself
" like a tod in his hole," giving out that his painful " foedity" was the cause of
his retirement. But at length the sky began to brighten, and the primate to
venture forth after a whole year of concealment. The king emancipated him-
self from his nobles of the Raid, and came to St Andrews, upon which the
archbishop, flinging off his sickness like a worn-out cloak, resumed his abandoned
pulpit with royalty for an auditor, and preached such sermons as were well
» The preaoher was no other than the learned Bishop Jewel. " Witches and sorcerers
within these last few years," he said, "ore marvellously increased within your GraeeN
realm. These eyes hare seen most evident and manifest marks of their wickedness. Tour
Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death : their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth,
their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. Wherefore your poor subjects' most
humble petition to your Highness is, that the laws touching such malefactors may be put
in due execution. For the shoal of them is great, their doing horrible, their malice into-
lerable, their examples most miserable : and I pray God they never practise further than
upon the subject."
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PATRICK ADAMSON. 27
fitted to ingratiate himself into the favour of the young sovereign. They were
furious declamations against the lords of the Raid, against the ministers of the
kirk by whom they had been countenanced, and against all their proceedings
by which the headlong will of James had been reduced within wholesome
limits; and these, too, were delivered in such fashion, as, we are informed by
James Melvill, " that he who often professed from the pulpit before that he
had not the spirit of application, got the gift of application by inspiration of
such a spirit as never spoke in the scriptures of God." Among the other effects
of the Raid of Ruthven, was the banishment of the king's unworthy favourites,
the Earl of Arran, and the Duke of Lennox, the former from the royal presence,
and the latter from the country ; and Lennox took his exile so much to heart,
that he died soon after he had arrived in France, while James continued to
bewail his loss. Here then was a favourable theme for the archbishop. The
chief offence alleged against Lennox was, that though outwardly a Protestant,
he had not only lived, but even died a Papist ; and from this stigma it was
Adamson's main effort to clear the memory of the departed. He therefore
boldly asserted, in his sermon, that Lennox had died a good Protestant, and in
proof of this he exhibited in the pulpit a scroll, which he called the Duke's
testament It happened unluckily for the preacher, however, that an honest
merchant woman, who sat near the pulpit, looked narrowly at this important
document, and saw with astonishment that it was an account of her own, which
she had sent to the archbishop for a debt of some four or five years' standing,
but which, like other reckonings of the kind, he had left unpaid 2
Adamson's loyalty was soon rewarded, and in a way that best accorded with
his wishes. He was to be employed as ambassador or envoy from the king to
the court of London. What was the ostensible object of his mission does not
appear ; but its real purport was, the suppression of Presby terianism in Scot-
land, and the establishment of such a form of Episcopacy in its stead, as might
make the union of the two countries more complete, when James should become
king of both. But in such an office the messenger behoved to go wisely and
warily to work, as Elizabeth was apt to take fire at every movement that pointed
to a succession in her throne. Another serious difficulty interposed in the very
threshold of the archbishop's departure. He had already been charged before
the presbytery of St Andrews, as corrupt both in life and doctrine : the trial
was removed to the synod, and was finally remitted to the General Assembly,
at whose bar he must justify himself, or be deposed for non-appearance ; and
he thus felt himself between the horns of a dilemma in which his compearance
or absence might be equally fatal. If, however, he could only get the trial
delayed until he had accomplished his mission, he might then brave it, or quash
it with impunity. He therefore called sickness to his aid, and pretended that
he was going to the wells of Spa, in Germany, for the recovery of his health ;
and this was nothing more than reasonable, even though he should take London
by the way. Forth therefore he went, unhindered and unsuspected ; and, if there
is any truth in " The Legend of the Lymmar's Life," a satirical poem, written
by Robert Semple, the archbishop's conduct during this embassy was anything
but creditable to his employers. His chief aim, indeed, seems to have been to
replenish his extenuated purse ; and, provided this was accomplished, he was
by no means scrupulous about the means. Even horses, books, and gowns
came into his permanent possession under the name of loans. His approach to
the palace for his first> and, as it turned out, his last audience, was equally
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PATRICK ADAMSON.
unseemly, for he advanced to the hallowed walls of the virgin Queen with as
little fastidiousness, as if he had been about to enter the dingy habitation of
some Scottish baron in one of the closes of the Canongate, so that a porter,
who espied him from the gate, rushed out and rebuked his indecorum with a
cudgel. But, amidst all his Scapin-like tricks in the English metropolis, from
which he seems to have derived for the time a comfortable revenue, Adamson
was not unmindful of the real object of his journey, which he pursued with a
diligence worthy of a better cause. He endeavoured to enlist the prejudices of
the Queen against the ministers of Scotland, and such of the nobility as favoured
them ; he consulted with the bishops upon the best means of conforming the
Scottish to the English church ; and, aware of the purpose of his own court to
banish or silence the best of the clergy, he wished them to send learned and
able ministers to supply the pulpits of those who were to be displaced. But,
not content with this, he endeavoured to bring the kirk of Scotland into dis-
credit with the foreign Reformed churches of France, Geneva, and Zurich, by
sending to them a list of garbled or distorted passages, as propositions extracted
from the Scottish confession, and craving their opinion as to their soundness.
It was a crafty device, and might have been attended with much mischief, had
it not been that an antidote to the bane was at this time in England, in the
person of Mr Andrew Melville, a more accomplished scholar, as well as a more
able and eloquent writer, than Adamson himself. He drew up a true statement
of the subjects propounded, and sent them to the foreign churches, by which
the archbishop's design was speedily frustrated. But the work of mere eccle-
siastical diplomacy does not seem to have been sufficient for the restless and
scheming mind of Adamson, so that he was suspected of intriguing with the
French and Spanish ambassadors, and connecting himself with the plot* of
Throckmorton, the object of which was the liberation of Mary, and the restora-
tion of Popery. It was a strange period of plots and conspiracies, where Pro-
testant, Papist, and Puritan, priest and layman, foreigner and Englishman, were
often mingled together as in a seething and bubbling cauldron, for the concoction
of a charm by which a cure for every public evil was to be effected. It was
immediately on the detection of this Throckmorton conspiracy, and the appre-
hension of its author, that the archbishop secretly withdrew from England and
returned home, after having been employed fully six months in these, and other
such devices, in London.
While Adamson had thus been occupied in England, in the establishment of
Episcopacy, the government at home had not been idle ; and the worthless Earl
of Arran, who, since the suppression of the Raid of Ruthven, had returned to
court, and acquired a greater ascendancy over the weak mind of James than
ever, proceeded to put his plan in execution of silencing, imprisoning, and
banishing the best and most distinguished of the Scottish clergy. It was thus
that the flocks were to be brought to helplessness, and a new order of shepherds
introduced. The list of the persecuted was a large one ; but among the most
illustrious of these were some of the most distinguished lights of the Scottish
Reformation, such as Andrew Melville, John Davidson, Walter Balcanquhal,
and James Lawson. Of these we can only particularize the last, as his closing
scene was but too intimately connected with the history of Patrick Adamson.
Lawson had been the friend and fellow-labourer of Knox, whom he succeeded
as minister of Edinburgh ; and in this important charge, while he was closely
connected with all the principal ecclesiastical movements of the period, he was
Digitized by
Google
PATRICK ADAMSON.
distinguished by his gentleness, self-denial, and piety. But these were the very
qualities that now marked him out as a victim ; and the imperious Arran did
not hesitate to threaten that, though his head were as big as a hay-stack, he
would make it fly from his shoulders. Lawson knew that his life was aimed
at, and, like several of his brethren thus circumstanced, he fled to England, and
took up his residence at London, in one of the lanes leading from Cheapside.
But the uncongenial climate, and, above all, the defection of many of his flock
daring his absence, so heavily afflicted him, that he fell into a disease, of which
he died in little more than a month. Upon his death-bed, the English who
visited him were edified with his pious remarks, which they carefully treasured
up for their families and acquaintances ; and his last prayers were for mercy to
those who would neither enter the kingdom of God themselves, nor suffer others
to enter therein. And will it be believed that Patrick Adamson, the man for
whom in especial he had so prayed, conceived the idea of perverting such a
death-bed to his own political purposes? But so it was. He sat down with
the pen of a ready writer, and composed an elaborate testament in Lawson's
name, in which the dying man was made to abjure all his Presbyterian princi-
ples, to grieve over them as deadly sins, to recommend the government of the
church by bishops, and enjoin implicit obedience to the king's authority. It
was indeed a bold exploit in literary forgery ; but, at this period and afterwards,
when the pen outran the activity of the press, and communities were so separ-
ated, it was easy to make a fraud of this kind, where the locality was transferred
to London, to pass current in £he streets of Edinburgh. There is no doubt that
thus the archbishop had calculated ; but, like many very cunning people, he,
in this instance, betrayed himself by his over-scrupulous dexterity, and wovo
the web so finely, that in many places it was quite transparent. Thus, not
content with making Lawson recant all the principles of his well-spent' life
with a hurry that was inconceivable, and laud Episcopal rule with an unction
and earnestness which the Archbishop of Canterbury himself could not have
surpassed, he also made him, in exhorting his old co-presbyters, to vent a
malignity of sentiment, and drolling bitterness 0/ satire, such as, whether living
or dying, Lawson could not and would not have used. But it fortunately hap-
pened that proof still stronger than inferential evidence was at hand, to convict
this impudent forgery; for Lawson himself had written his last testament,
which was witnessed with the honoured names of Andrew Melville, James
Carmichael, John Davidson, and Walter Balcanquhal.
After his return from England, Adamson did not lie idle ; he zealously joined
the king and Arran in their persecution of the best adherents of the kirk,
under which, not only the principal ministers, but also the chief of the nobility,
were fugitives in England. His pen also was soon in requisition for a more
dignified work, at least, than that of blackening the memory of a departed
brother; it was to advocate, defend, and justify certain obnoxious measures of
James and his favourite, that had passed through the parliament in 1584, and
were generally unpopular, both on account of their anti-presbyterian spirit iu
religion, and their despotic tendencies in civil rule. This task Adamson accom-
plished, and with such plausibility and ingenuity, that his apology was not
only in high favour with the king, but widely popular in England, so that it
was inserted in the appendix of Holinshed's History as a true picture of the
religious state of Scotland. But this was not his only reward. Although he
was still a suspended presbyter, with his trial by the General Assembly hanging
Digitized by
Google
PAT1UCK ADAMSON.
over him, and accounted a very Julian the Apostate by his former brethren,
yet he was now to be confirmed in his primacy, with all the high rights and
immunities that could be comprised within the office. This was announced by
a royal letter, under the great seal, and, as such, was indignantly termed by the
ministers the King's Bull, "giving and granting to his well-beloved clerk and
orator, Patrick, archbishop of St Andrews, power, authority, and jurisdiction
to exercise the same archbishopric by himself, his commissioners, and deputies,
in all matters ecclesiastical, within the diocese of St Andrews, and sheriffdoms
which have been heretofore annexed thereto." In this way he would be able
to sit as presiding moderator in that Assembly where he should have stood as
a culprit, and silence the charges which he could not have answered. But this,
his culminating point, was also that of his downfall. The banished lords, who
had withdrawn themselves to England, now took counsel upon the oppressed
state of their country, and resolved to redress it after the old Scottish fashion.
They therefore approached the border, where they could communicate with
their allies, and appoint musters of their retainers; and at length, all being in
readiness, Angus, Mar, Glammis, and the Hamiltons entered Scotland, and
rapidly marched to Stirling, at the head of eight thousand armed men, to reason
with their misguided sovereign. He soon found himself, like many of his
ancestors, the pupil of Force and Necessity, and was compelled to yield to their
stern remonstrances; while Arran was again, and for the last time, banished
into that obscurity from which he should never have been summoned.
The return of the exiled lords, and the banishment of Arran from court,
produced a breathing interval to the kirk ; and the ministers who had been
dispersed, warded, or silenced, were enabled to resume their charges unquet-
tioned. It was now time, therefore, to redress the evils that had been inflicted
upon the church, and these too by members of its own, body, during the last
two years of trial, if its polity and discipline were to be something more than
an empty name. It was a stern duty, as Adamson was soon to feel. He had
laboured for the eversion of the kirk, and the persecution of its ministers, under
an unconstitutional authority against which he had protested and subscribed ;
and for all this he must answer before the court to which the assise of such
delinquencies pertained. The synod of St Andrews, which had been closed
during the persecution, was to be re-opened, and their first work was to be the
trial of their own archbishop, whom their laws recognized as a simple presbyter,
and nothing more. This solemn meeting was therefore convoked in April, 1666,
to which a great concourse assembled ; and thither also came the archbishop,
" with a great pontificality and big countenance," for he boasted that he was in
his own city, and possessed of the king's favour, and therefore needed to fear
no one. He also placed himself close by the preacher, who was Mr James
Melville, as if determined to outbrave the whole assembly. The discourse was
a vindication of the polity of the church, and a rehearsal of the wrongs it had
Buffered ; and then, " coming in particular," says Melville himself, " to our own
kirk of Scotland, I turned to the bishop, sitting at my elbow, and directing my
speech to him personally, I recounted to him, shortly, his life, actions, and pro-
ceedings against the kirk, taking the assembly there to witness, and his own con-
science before God, if he was not an evident proof and example of that doctrine ;
whom, being a minister of the kirk, the Dragon had so stung with the poison
and venom of avarice and ambition, that, swelling exorbitantly out of measure,
threateued the wreck and destruction of the whole body, unless he were time-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PATRICK ADAMSON. 31
oualy and with courage cut off." To this formidable appeal, the archbishop
endeavoured to answer, but it was only with frivolous objections, and threats
of the king's displeasure, while his courage was so utterly gone that he could
scarcely ait, far less stand on his feet. But the business commenced, the pro-
cess was entered into, and Adamson left the meeting. He was invited to return,
but he sent for answer that the synod was no judge to him, but he to it He
not only persisted in refusing to appear, but sent such answers to the charges
against htm as only aggravated the offence. Nothing remained but to inflict
upon him the final sentence of the church, which was done accordingly. After
enumerating his offences, it thus concluded : — " Therefore, and for divers other
notorious slanders whereof he was to be accused, and refused to underly any
lawful trial, the assembly, in the fear of God, and in the name of Christ Jesus,
moved by zeal to the glory of God, and purging of His kirk, ordains the said
sentence of excommunication instantly to be put into execution in the face of
the assembly; and, by the mouth of Mr Andrew Hunter, minister at Carnobie,
at command and appointment of the assembly, declares him to be one of those
whom Christ commandeth to be holden by all and every one of the faithful as
an ethnic or publican."
The doom so long suspended had thus fallen at last ; but still the primate would
not yield. He rallied himself for a desperate counter- movement, and penned,
by his own sole authority, a sentence of excommunication against the two
Melvillea, and some of his principal accusers in the synod, which he sent by a
boy, accompanied by two of his jackmen ; but when this strange and most
informal missive was read in the church, the audience were as little moved by
it, as if he had excommunicated the stones of the building. He also sent a
complaint against these proceedings to the king, with an appeal from the
authority of the synod to his majesty, the estates, and the privy council. On
the arrival of Sabbath, he prepared for a decisive effort, by preaching in the
church in spite of the sentence. But just when he was about to ascend the
pulpit, a mischievous rumour reached his ear, that several gentlemen and
citizens had assembled in the New College, to take him out of the pulpit, and
hang him; and terrified with the tidings, he not only called his friends and
jaekmen to the rescue, but fled from the church, and took refuge in the steeple.
And yet, the whole cause of the stir was nothing more than the assembling of
a few gentlemen and citizens in the New College, to attend the preaching of
Andrew Melville, instead of that of an excommunicated man ! The archbishop's
friends followed him to the steeple, to assure him of his safety ; but so desperate
was his fear, that they could scarcely drag him out by force. While he was
half-led, half-carried down the High Street, and through the north gate towards
his castle, an unlucky stray hare, terrified at the coming din, suddenly started
up, and fled before them. Even this incident could impart some gravity to the
scene. It was a popular belief at that time in Scotland that a witch, when
pursued, usually assumed the form of a hare, more effectually to ensure her
escape ; and the appearance of the poor animal at such a time and place, made
the people declare that it was no other than the prelate's witch, abandoning her
master, to make good her own safety.
We have already stated that Adamson appealed against the sentence of
e x oomm u nica tion, to the authority of the king. In this singular appeal, he
declaimed with great learning and marvellous plausibility about the right of
royalty to interpose against ecclesiastical, as well as civil tyranny ; and as he had
32
PATRICK ADAMSON.
already made out, as he thought, his own case to he one of undue ecclesiastical
oppression on the part of his enemies, the conclusion was plain, that the king
could lawfully release him from the spiritual sentence. He wound up his
reasoning with the following supposition, to which, he well knew, James would
not be insensible : " Beseeching your majesty to consider and weigh with your
Highness' self, nobility, and council, how dangerous a thing it is to put such a
sword in such men's hands, or to suffer them to usurp further than their duty ;
whereby it may come to pass, that as rashly and unorderly they have pretendedly
excommunicated the first man of your majesty's parliament (albeit unworthy), so
there rests nothing of their next attempt to do the same to your majesty's self."
The king's pride was roused at such a thought, as well as his kingcraft for the
restoration of Episcopacy, now at a stand through the jeopardy of his archbishop ;
and therefore he arrogantly required the ministers to rescind their sentence,
threatening them with the deprivation of their rights and stipends in the event
of a refusal. The General Assembly met in May the same year, when these
conditions were proposed, and the members were in sore strait how to act in
such a dilemma; for most of the restored lords, after being replaced in their
possessions, had left the church to shift for itself. At length* a medium course
was adopted by the Assembly, and that, too, only by a small majority. It was,
that the archbishop " should be holden and repute in the same case and con-
dition that he was in before the holding of the Synod of St Andrews, without
prejudice, decerning, or judging anything of the proceedings, process, or sentence
of the said synod." It was a strange decision, by which Adamson was allowed
to teach, preach, and exercise his clerical functions, excommunicated though
he still was ; while the pulpits, by royal decree, were not only' to be patent to
his entrance, but the students of St Andrews were commanded to attend his
lectures in the Old College as heretofore. This violence, as might be expected,
produced counter- violence, so that libels were thrown not only into the arch-
bishop's chamber, but the pulpits in which he officiated, threatening him with
death for his intrusion. And as if all this had- not been enough, he added to
h is further disqualifications, by inability to pay his debts, in consequence of which
he was, according to the practice 'of the Scottish law, denounced a rebel, and
put to the horn. This case was brought before the Assembly of June, 1687,
because many people Jiad demurred to attend his ministrations, while he laboured
under such degrading disabilities: ' The Assembly, however, decided that these
were of a civil, rather than an ecclesiastical character, and referred them to the
Ling for adjustment.
In the very same year and month, while Adamson was in this miserable
plight — an excommunicated minister and an outlawed prelate— the first man
in the parliament, and yet a denounced rebel because he could not pay his
debts— a gleam of royal sunshine fell upon him, which was destined to be the
last. The celebrated Du Bartes visited Scotland ; and James, delighted with the
arrival of so distinguished a scholar and poet, received him with princely dis-
tinction, and entertained him as his guest. While they were in Fife, the king
was desirous that Du Bartes should see the two most accomplished scholars in
Scotland — and these were incontestibly to be found at St Andrews, in Andrew
Melville and Patrick Adamson. Thither accordingly the royal cortege repaired ;
and the first notice which Melville had of the visit was from the king himself,
who bluntly told him that he had come with the illustrious foreigner, to have
a lesson from him in his class-room. Startled by such a brief warning, Melville
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
PATRICK ADAMSON. S3
would have excused himself, on the plea that he had already delivered his ordi-
nary lecture in the forenoon. " That is all one," said the king; " I mutt hare
a lesson, and be you here within an hour for that effect" In less than an hour,
the professor was in readiness ; the distinguished visitors and the students were
assembled; and Melville commenced such a lecture, as made the king wish him-
self once more among the deer in Falkland. It was an eloquent extemporane-
ous oration, in which he vindicated Christ's right of sovereignty over his own
church, and refuted and exposed the acts of parliament that had been lately
enacted subversive of the kirk's authority. James went home in no very
pleasant mood, and remained in a fume the whole evening. On the next morn-
ing it was Adamson's turn, who was not likely to trespass in the same fashion.
During the interval, he had prepared a " tightened-up abridgment" of his
previous year's lectures, in which he attempted to vindicate the royal supremacy
in ecclesiastical affairs, and justify the steps that had been taken for that pur-
pose. Andrew Melville, who attended as an auditor, took notes of the arch-
bishop's arguments; and without further study, caused the college bell to be
rung after a short interval, to announce a new lecture. The king, who had not
yet digested the lesson of yesterday, sent a warning to Melville to be moderate,
otherwise he would discharge him ; to which the other replied, that his majesty's
ear had already been abused by Adamson's errors and untruths, which he could
not allow to pass unquestioned, unless his breath were stopped by death itself
— but that still, he should be careful to behave himself most moderately and
reverendly to his majesty in all respects. The king was satisfied with this
assurance, and repaired to the class-room, where Adamson was also in attend-
ance ; and he craved and obtained the royal permission to reply, should any
thing be alleged against his doctrine. The two strong champions were now
standing front to front in the lists— and never had king of Scotland so delighted
in the hurtling together of man and horse, and the shivering of spears, as did
James in the prospect of an intellectual tournament, where dexterous syllo-
gisms and home-thrust arguments were the only blows in circulation. But
here, Melville changed his tactics, in a way that would have puzzled the
most experienced master of fence. He had no longer a controversy with Epis-
copacy, but with Popery, the great common enemy of Protestantism at large ;
and thus secure of the sympathy of his audience, he extracted from the works
of the Popish authors the strongest arguments they had adduced in defence of
their system, for the purpose of refuting them. But these arguments were the
very same which Adamson had used in the forenoon, in favour of the spiritual
government of kings and bishops ! There, however, they stood among the
ranks of the uncircumcised ; and as such, they were attacked with an amount
of scripture and learning, and a force and fervour of eloquence, as completely
swept them off the field. It was now the archbishop's turn to bestir himself,
but he was dumb— dumb as the bench he sat upon. At last, the king advanced
to the rescue; and after making several logical distinguos, upon which he
harangued for some time, he ended by commanding the students to reverence
and obey his archbishop. When James departed, Du Bartes stayed behind a
whole hour, conversing with Andrew Melville, after which, he mounted his
horse, and rejoined his majesty. The king wished to know the opinion of the
foreigner upon the two men they had heard ; to which Du Bartes replied, That
they were both learned men, but that the prelate's lectures were conned and
prepared, while Melville had a great and ready store of all kinds of learning
I
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
34 PATRICK ADAMSON.
within him ; and that his spirit and courage were far above the other* In this
correct estimate James completely agreed.
From this period, the life of Adamson was but a brief and mournful record .
After his late discomfiture, he became weary of teaching in the college, and
seems to have remitted it in a great measure to his successful rival* The minis-
trations of the pulpit could not console him* as the audiences either avoided him
as an excommunicated man, or tarried aod listened as to the voice of an Intruder,
Freeh complaints were made against him in the church courts, of having col-
lated unworthy persons to benefices with! a his diocese. And, to crown all, he
finally lost the favour and protection of the king, whom he had served only too
well, hut who was now weary of an archbishop buried under debt and disgrace,
and whose season of working seemed weli nigh over. Broken in health as well
as in spirit, it might have been thought that James would at least have suffered
such a faithful servant to depart in peace ; but as if his own ungrateful hand,
and no other, ought to deal the final blow, he alienated from him whatever of
the revenues of his diocese he was still permitted to enjoy, and bestowed them
upon the young Duke of Lennox, the son of his early favourite. In 1501,
A dam son was dying a heart-broken man, and unable to procure for himself and
his family even the common necessaries of life. But besides hollow friends, he
had generous enemies, and these last came forward in the hour of his extremity.
Such especially were the two Melville*, whom he had persecuted in the season
of his ascendancy, but who now supported him for several months, at their own
expense. At last, he was reduced to such miserable shifts, that he entreated a
charitable collection to be made for him among the brethren in the town of St
Andrews ; and as an inducement, he offered to repair to the pulpit, and there
make open confession of his offences. This, indeed, his sickness prevented him
from accomplishing ; but he rendered an equivalent, in a distinct " Recanta-
tion," which he subscribed, and sent to the synod of St Andrews. Besides thus
showing how little he had cared for Episcopacy, and how much he had used it
for his own aggrandizement, he evinced the force of his early and long*concealed
convictions in favour of Presbyterian! &m, by the remorse which he now felt at
the thought of his excommunication, and his earnestness to be absolved from
the sentence ; and to this effect he sent a supplication to the presbytery of St
Andrews. They deputed two of the brethren, one of whom was James Mel-
ville, to examine him, and, if they judged fit, to release him. As soon as the
dying man saw Melville, he rose up in bed, plucked the night-cap from his
head, and exclaimed, ** Forgive, forgive me, for God's sake, good Mr James, for
I have offended and done wrong to you many ways ! M Melville spoke to him
of his sin against Christ and hia church, exhorted him to repentance, with the
assurance of mercy from God if be repented, and forgave him with all his heart.
His excommunication was then spoken of, and he was asked if he acknowledged
its lawfulness. To this, his emphatic reply, which he repeated again and again,
was, " Loose me, for Christ's sake !" His state and petition were fully reported
to the presbytery, and he was forthwith absolved. Even yet, as appears from
his " Recantation," he had hoped to struggle through this his last illness ; and
he professed in it his earnest desire and purpose to commence a better life, and
repair the evils he had inflicted upon religion and the church. But his new*
born sincerity was not to be thus tried, and he died in the lowest depths of his
humiliation and repentance. Hia character is thus strongly and briefly summed
up by James Melville, who knew him well, and witnessed his career from its
Digitized by
Google
SAINT AIDAN.
height to its mournful termination : — " This man had many great gifts, but espe-
cially excelled in the tongue and pen ; and yet, for abusing of the same against
Christy all use of both the one and the other was taken from him, when he was
in greatest misery, and had most need of them. In the latter end of his life, his
nearest friends were no comfort to him, and his supposed greatest enemies, to
whom indeed he offered greatest occasion of enmity, were his only friends, and
recompenced good for evil, especially my uncle Andrew, but found small tokens
of any spiritual comfort in him, which chiefly he would have wished to have
seen at his end. Thus God delivered his kirk of a most dangerous enemy, who,
if he had "been endowed with a common civil piece of honesty in his dealing and
conversation, he had more means to have wrought mischief in a kirk or coun-
try, than any I have known or heard of in our island."
As will be surmised from the foregoing account, Patrick Adamson was both
an able and a voluminous writer ; but most of his productions were merely
written for the day, and have passed away with the occasions in which they
originated. Some of them he never purposed to acknowledge, while others
remained unpublished in manuscript. Most of these he confessed and regretted
in his " Recantation," declaring, that if it should please God to restore his health,
he would change his style, " as Cajetanus did at the Council of Trent. " His
principal writings were collected and published, in one quarto volume, by Thomas
Volusenus (Wilson) in 1619 ; but notwithstanding their undoubted excellence,
it may be questioned if they are now at all known beyond the library of the
antiquary. It appears, that on becoming minister of Paisley, Adamson married
the daughter of a lawyer, who survived him, and by whom he had a family ;
hut all record of them has passed away, so that he may be said to have been the
last, as he was the first of his race. The precise date of his death has not been
mentioned ; but it was in the latter part of the year 1591. Such was the career
and end of the great antagonist and rival of Andrew Melville.
AIDAN, Saint, Bishop of Lindisfarne in the seventh century, was originally
a monk in the island of Iona, and afterwards became a missionary in England.
To understand aright the history and labours of this self-devoted Christian
missionary, it is necessary to glance at the condition of England, and especially
of Northumbria, at the commencement of his ministry. England had been but
lately converted to Christianity, through the labours of Augustin and forty
monks, who had been sent to Britain, for that purpose, by Pope Gregory the
Great. The conversion of the seven kingdoms of the heptarchy, into which
England was divided by the Saxon conquerors, had been effected with unex-
ampled rapidity, but through the simplest agency. The monks, in the first
instance, addressed themselves to the sovereign of the state; and when he
renounced his heathen errors, and submitted to baptism, his people implicitly
followed the example^ But such sudden and wholesale conversions were
extremely precarious; and it sometimes happened that, when the king apos-
tatized or died, the people returned to their former worship of Thor and Odin
as promptly as they had forsaken it. Such was especially the case in North*
umbria, the largest kingdom of the heptarchy, and the scene of Aidan's labours.
Edwin, the best and most illustrious sovereign of his day, after a life of strange
peril and adventure, had won his hereditary Northumbrian crown, and been
converted to Christianity by the Italian missionary Paulinus ; and, on becoming
a Christian, the happiest change was soon perceptible among his hitherto un-
tamable subjects. They received their sovereign's creed without murmur ox
Digitized by
Google
36 SAINT AIDAN.
debate; "and in this time, 9 ' says the old chronicler Fabyan, "was so great
peace in the kingdom of Edwin, that a woman might hare gone from one town
to another without grief or noyaunce; and, for the refreshing of way-goers,
this Edwin ordained, at clear wells, cups, or dishes of brass or iron, to be fas-
tened to posts standing by the said wells' sides ; and no man was so hardy as
to take away those cops, he kept so good justice." In short, he seems to have
been the Alfred of an earlier and ruder period. But, in the height of his power
and usefulness, the terrible Pjenda, king of Mercia, and great champion of the
ancient paganism, came against him in arms, and Edwin was defeated and slain
in a great battle, fought at Hatfield or Heathfield, near the river Trent. The
consequence was, that the Northumbrians relapsed into their former barbarism
so rapidly, that every trace of Christianity would soon have been effaced from
among them, had it not been that Oswald, the nephew of Edwin, came forward
to vindicate the liberties of his falling country. This brave young prince, who
headed the Christian cause against the Pagan, advanced to give battle to Cad-
wallader, king of North Wales, in whom his people had found the most relent-
less of their enemies. The Christian army which Oswald headed was very
small, while that of Cadwallader was numerous, and its king was an able
leader and successful conqueror, Aware of the disparity, and conscious of their
own weakness, Oswald and his soldiers knelt in prayer, and humbly committed
themselves to the God of the Christians, after which they assailed the enemy
with full confidence, near Hexham* The Welsh were completely routed, their
king was slain, and the victorious prince was received as king by the two united
states of Deira and Bernicia.
The piety of Oswald attributed this signal success to the aid of the true God,
whom he had invoked; and the first movement of his reign was to arrest the
growing heathenism of his people, and recal them to the Christian faith. For
this purpose he applied, however, not to the Italian monks, as his uncle had
done, but to the Culdees of Iona; among whom he had been sheltered in his
early youth, during the disasters of his family, and by whom he had been care-
fully educated. The message was gladly received by the Culdee brethren, and
Corman, a learned monk of their order, was forthwith sent to Northumbrian
But the savage manners of the people appalled him, their inability to compre-
hend his instructions disgusted him, so that, despairing of their conversion, he
speedily returned home. While he was giving an account of his mission, and
describing the Northumbrians as a race of impracticable savages, a voice of
rebuke was suddenly heard in the assembly : " Brother, it seems to me that
your want of success was owing to a want of condescension to your hearers.
You should first have fed them with milk, according to the apostolic rule, until
they were fitted to receive stronger food." All eyes were turned upon the
speaker, who was Aidan. It was unanimously agreed by the assembly that he
was the fittest person to attempt the conversion of the Northumbrians, and, on
the charge being proposed to him, he cordially agreed. He arrived in England
a.d. 634, and repaired to the court of king Oswald. And now a missionary
work commenced in the Northumbrian kingdom such as missionary annals can
seldom parallel, for both king and monk went hand in hand in the duty. Aidan,
being a Celt, was either wholly ignorant of the Saxon language of his hearers
or imperfectly acquainted with it ; but, when he preached, Oswald was ready
to interpret his addresses, The happiest results attended these joint labours.
The ancient idolatry was utterly thrown aside, and Christianity established
Digitized by
Google
SAINT AID AN, 37
over Dei fa and Bernicia. Still further to confirm this change, A Mi in prevailed
upon (he king to transfer the episcopal see from York to Lin diamine, or Holy
bland, a bleak peninsula upon the coast of Northumberland, which probably
the Culdee preferred from its resemblance to his own beloved Zona; and here,
accordingly, a monastery was erected, which Aidan supplied with monks from
his own country* It is to be observed, also, that the form of Christianity thus
established in Northumbria was different from that which the Italian priests
had established over the rest of England. It was according to the primitive
institutes of Saint Columba, and therefore essentially presbyterian in its form
and discipline, Aidan, although he succeeded to the metropolitan rule of the
extensive archbishopric of York, was contented to continue a simple presbyter,
and nothing more. He held no intercourse with the Roman pontiff, and ac-
knowledged no superiority of episcopal authority. He repudiated those showy
ceremonies and artificial forms which were so congenial to the Italian character,
and which the foreign priests had been so careful to introduce into England*
And, above all, instead of paying homage to tradition, aa an authority indepen-
dent of the Word, he would receive nothing as a religious rule save that which
was contained in the sacred writings. Such was the religion of the Culdees ;
ind in this form it was introduced into Northumbria by Atdan and Oswald,
Mm were both of them Culdees, .Rut even if these important peculiarities had
been left undisturbed by the Western church, that aimed at universal conformity
and universal rale, there were certain trivialities belonging to the Guldeeism of
Northumberland that, sooner or later, was sure to provoke the hostility of the
rest of England, The priests of the order of Columba shaved their foreheads
in the form of a half-moon, after the Eastern fashion, instead of having the
Western tonsure, that was meant to represent a crown of thorns. Their season
also of keeping Easter was according to the Asiatic calculation, and not that of
the West* These were peculiarities which every eye could detect at once, and
were therefore sufficient matters for controversy among a simple people, whose
views could penetrate no further; and, accordingly, the Easter and tonsure
controversy became, in a few years after^ the great subject of religions debate in
England, by which the Culdees were expelled from the country. These dis-
turbances, however, did not occur until both king and monk had entered into
their rest.
After the death of Oswald, who was slain in battle, the kingdom of North-
ern bria was once more parted into two sovereignties, those of Deira and Ber-
ate ia ; in the former of which Oswin was appointed king, and, in the latter,
Oswio. It was, however a peaceful conjunction ; and Aidan still continued, as
before, to preside over the church of Northumberland, The character of Oswin
appears to have fully resembled that of his amiable predecessor, and the bishop
of Lindisfarne seems to have loved him with a still higher affection than even
thai which he bore for Oswald, Amidst the obscurity of that remote period,
and the shadowy character of its actors, Bede tells us a touching story, in which
the simple manners of the times, as well as the intercourse between the king
and the bishop, are brought out in strong relief. Oswin had once presented to
Aidan a fine horse. It happened that one day, as the Culdee was riding forth,
he met a poor man, who asked of him an alms, and Aiflan, taring no money,
bestowed on htm the horse and its rich trappings. The king, on hearing of
this, was "displeased, and could not refrain from expressing his resentment when
Aidan next dined with him. " Why were you so lavish of my favour," ho
Digitized by
Google
S3 WILLIAM AIKMAN.
said, " as to give away my pad to a beggar ? If you must needs mount him on
horseback, could you not have given him on© of less value? Or, if he wanted
any other relief, you might have supplied him otherwise, and not have parted
so easily with my gift.*' ** You have not carefully considered this malter,* 1
replied Aidan, "for otherwise you could not set a greater value on the son of a
mare, than on a son of God/* In this way the affair ended for the present.
Not long after, when the king returned from hunting, he saw the bishop, and,
remembering what had lately occurred, he laid aside his sword, threw himself
at the good man's feet, and aaked his forgiveness for the rude words he had
uttered. Aid an, grieved to see the king in this posture, immediately raised
him, and declared that the whole matter was forgot* After this interview,
however, Aidan was observed to be very sad ; and, on being asked the cause by
soma of his monks, he burst into tears, and replied, " How can I be otherwise
than afllietetl ? I foresee that Os win's life will be short, for never have I beheld
a prince so humble. His temper is too heavenly to dwell long among us, and,
truly 5 the nation does not deserve the blessing of such a ruler*" This mournful
prediction was soon after accomplished by the death of Oswtn, who was assas-
sinated in August, 651 ; and Aidan took the matter so deeply to hearty that he
died a fortnight after.
Such is the little that we know of Saint Aidan, the apostle of Northumber-
J tnJ, and bishop of Lindisfarne. That he was great and good, and that he
accomplished much, is evident from the old chronicles, and especially from the
history of venerable Be tie, from whom the foregoing account has been chiefly
gathered. The Venerable has also added to his account three miracles per-
formed by Aidan, one of which occurred after his death ; but with these it is
unnecessary to trouble the modem reader. It is more agreeable to turn to his
character, as drawn by Bede himself, who lived during the close of the same
century, and knew Aidan well, not only from the testimony of his apostolic
labours, but the reports of the old men, who had heard his words, and witnessed
his doings ; — " These things I have written, *' he says, " tonchiug the person and
actions of the man aforesaid, praising in his actions what is praiseworthy, and
committing it to posterity for the behoof of those who read ; to wit, his coticeru
for peace and charity, for abstinence and humility ; his utter freedom from
wrath and avarice, from pride and vain- glory ; his readiness alike to obey and
teach the Divine commands ; his diligence in reading and watching ; his true
sacerdotal authority in checking the proud and powerful, and, at the same
lime, his tenderness in comforting the afflicted, and relieving or defending the
]H>or. To say all in few words, as far as we have been informed by those who
personally knew him, he took care to omit no part of his duty, but, to the
utmost of his power, performed everything commanded in the writings of the
evangelists, apostles, and prophets/ 1
AIKMAN, Willum, a painter, of considerable merit* of the last century,
wsa bo m , i n A berdeenshi re, Oct ober 2 4, 1 82. H is fath er was W ill iam A i kma a
of Cairney, a man of eminence at the Scottish bar, who educated his son to follow
his own profession. But a predilection for the fine arts, and a love of poetry,
which gained him the friendship of Ramsay and Thomson t induced the youth to
pve up studying For the law, and turn his attention to painting. Having pro-
secuted his studies in painting for a time at home under Sir John Medina, and
also in England, he resolved to visit Italy, that he might complete his education
as an artjst, and form his taste, by an examination of the classic models of anti-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM AIKMAN,
39
qnity ; and accordingly, in 1707, having told his paternal estate near Arbroath,
that he might leave home untrammelled, he went to Rome, where, daring a
period of three years, he put himself under the tuition of the best masters. He
afterwards visited Constantinople and Smyrna, where the gentlemen of the Eng-
lish factory wished him to engage in the Turkey trade ; an overture which ho
declined ; and returning to Rome, he there renewed his studies for a time. In
1712, he revisited his native country, and commenced practising his profession;
but, though his works were admired by the discerning few, he did not meet with
adequate encouragement, the public being too poor at that time to purchase ela-
borate works of art, and the taste for such works being then too imperfectly
formed. At this period he formed an intimacy with Allan Ramsay, whose por-
trait ho afterwards painted, John, Duke oft-Argyle, who equally admired the
artist and esteemed the roan, regretting that such talents should he lost, at length
prevailed upon Aikman, in 172.% to move with all his family to London. There,
under the auspices of his distinguished friend, he associated with the most emi-
nent British painters of the age, particularly Sir Godfrey Knell er, whose studies
and dispositions of mind were congenial with his own. The duke also recom-
mended hitn to many people of the first rank, particularly the Earl of Bur-
lington, so well known for his taste in architecture; and he was thus able
to be of much service to Thomson, who came to* London soon after himself, as a
literary adventurer. He introduced the poet of " The Seasons 1 * to the brilliant
literary circle of the day — Pope, Swift* Gay, Arbuthnot, &c> — and, what was
perhaps of more immediate service, to Sir Robert Walpole, who aimed at being
thought a friend to men of genius. Among the more intimate friends of Aik-
man, was William Somerville, author of "The Chase," from whom he received
an elegant tribute of the muse, on his painting a full-length portrait of the poet
in the decline of life, carrying him hack, by the assistance of another portrait,
to his youthful days. This poem was never published in any edition of Somer-
villus works, Aikman painted, for the Earl of Burlington, a large picture of
the royal family of England ; all the younger branches being in the middle
compartment, on a very largo canvas, and on one hand a full-length portrait of
Queen Caroline; the picture of the king (George II.) — that king who never
could endure ** boetry or hainting," as he styled the two arts in his broken Eng-
lish — intended for the opposite side, was never finished, owing to the death of
the artist. This was perhaps the last picture brought towards a close by Aikman,
and it is allowed to have been in his best style ; it came into the possession of the
Duke of Devonshire by a marriage alliance with the Burlington family. Some of
his earlier works are in the possession of the Aigyle and Hamilton families in
Scotland ; his more mature and mellow productions are chiefly to bo found in
England, and a large portion at Blickling, in Norfolk, the seat of the Earl of
Buckinghamshire; these are chiefly portraits of noblemen, ladies, and gentlemen,
friends of the earl* He died June 4, 1731, at his house, in Leicester Fields, and,
by his own desire, his body was taken to Scotland for interment ; his only son,
John (by his wife Marion Lawson, daughter of Mr Lawson, of Cairnmuir, in
Peeblesshire), whose death immediately preceded his own, was buried in the same
grave with him, in the Grey friars' churchyard, Edinburgh, A monument was
erected over the remains of Mr Aikman, with the following epitaph by Mallet,
which has been long since obliterated : —
Bear to the gnod and wile, dispraised by none.
llera Bleep in peace the father nod the Bon.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
40 WILLIAM ATKMAN,
By virtue as by nature close allied
The painter's genius, but wknout the pride.
Worth unambitious, wit afraid to shine,
Honour's clear light, and friendship's warmth divine.
The ion, fair-rising, knew too short a date;
But O hew mure severe the parent's fate 1
He saw him torn nn timet j from his aide,
Felt oil a father's anguish— wept, and died.
The following verses, in which Thomson bewails him with all the warmth of
grateful Friendship, are only partially printed in that poet'a works :—
O could I draw, my friend, thy genuine mtn't,
Just as the limine; forms by thee designed [
Of Raphael's figures none should fairer shine,
Nor Titian's colour* longer Inst than thine.
A mind in wisdom old, in lenience young,
From fervid truth, whence every virtue sprung;
Where all was real, modest, plain, sincere;
Worth above show, and goodness unset ere*
Viewed round and round, as lucid diamonds show,
Still, aa you turn them, a revolving glow :
So did his mind reflect with secret ray,
In various virtue*, Heaven's eternal day.
Whether in high discourse it soared sublime
And sprung impatient o'er the bouuds of time,
Or wandering nature o'er with raptured eye.
Adored the hand that turned yon aaure sky ;
"Whether to social joy he bent his thought,
And the right poise that mingling passions sought*
Gay converse blest, or, in the thoughtful grove,
Bid the heart open every source of love :
In varying lights, still set before our eyes
The just, the good, the social, and the wise.
For sueh a death who can, who would refuse,
The friend a tear, a verae the mournful muse?
Yet pay we must acknowledgment to Heaven,
Though snatch'* I so soon, that Atrium e'er was given.
Grateful from nature's banquet let us rise,
Nor leave the banquet with reluctant eye* r
A friend, when dead, is but removed from light,
Sunk in the lustre of eternal light;
And, when the parting storms of life an o'er,
May yet re join ui on a happier shore.
As those we love decay, we Ufa in part ; -
String after string is severed from the heart ; ,
Till loosened life at last — but breathing clay —
Without one pang is glad to fall away.
Unhappy he who latest feels the blow,
Whose eyes have wept o'er every friend laid low ;
Dragged linger ing on from partial death to death,
And, dying, all he can resign is breath.
In his style of painting, Aikman seems to have aimed at imitating nature in
her most simple forms ; his lights are soft, his shades mellow, and his colouring
mild and harmonious. Hi 9 touch has neither the force nor the harshness of
Rubens ; nor does he> like Reynolds, adorn his portraits with the elegance of
adventitious graces, His compositions are distinguished hy a placid tranquillity,
11
Digitized by
Google
WILLIAM AITOK.— ALEXANDER ALES oa ALBSSB, 41
rather than a striking brilliancy of effect ; and his portraits may be more readily
mistaken for those of Kneller than for the works of any other eminent artist
A I TON, Willi am , an eminent horticulturist and hot an 1st* was horn, in 17-1],
at a village in the neighbourhood of Hamilton. Having been regularly bred to
I he profession of a gardener, as it was and still is practised by numbers of hfa
country men* with a union of manual skill and scientific knowledge, he removed
to England in 1754, and, in the year following, obtained the notice of the cele-
brated Philip Miller, then superintendent of the physic garden at Chelsea, who
employed him for some time as an assistant. The instructions which he received
from that eminent gardener laid the foundation, it is said, of his future fortune.
His industry and abilities were so conspicuous, that, in 1750, he was pointed
out to the Princess- Do wager of Wales as a fit person to manage the botanical
garden at Kew. His professional talents also procured him the notice of Sir
Joseph Banks, and a friendship commenced which subsisted between them for
Hfe, Dr Solander and Dr Dryander were also among the number of his friends.
The encouragement of botanical studies was a distinguished feature of the reign
of George III., who, soon after his accession, determined to render Kew a
repository of all the vegetable riches of the world. Specimens were accordingly
procured from every quarter of the globej and placed under the care of Mr
Alton, who showed a surprising degree of skill in their arrangement. Under
his superintendence, a variety of improvements took place in the plan and edi-
fices of Kew gardens, till they attained an undoubted eminence over every other
botanical institution. In 1783, on a vacancy occurring in the superintendence
of the pleasure gardens at Kew, Mr Alton received the appointment from
George IlL, but was, at the same time, permitted to retain his more important
office. His labours proved that the king's favours were not ill bestowed ; for, in
1789, he published an elaborate description of the plants at Kew, under the
title, u Hortus Kewensis," 3 vols. Svo, with a number of plates. In this pro-
duction, Mr Aiton gave an account of no fewer than SGOO foreign plants, which
had been introduced from time to time into the English gardens ; and so highly
was the work esteemed, that the whole impression was sold within two years.
A second and improved edition was pu bite lied by his son, William Townsend
Atton, in 1810. After a life of singular activity and usefulness, distinguished,
moreover, by all the domestic virtues, Mr Alton died on the 1st of February,
1793, of a schirrus in the liver, in the 63d year of his age. He lies buried in
the churchyard at Kew, near the graves of his distinguished friend a, Zoffany,
Meyer, and Gainsborough* He was succeeded by his son, Mr William Town-
send Aiton, who was no less esteemed by George I IT. than his father had been,
and who, for fifty years, ably superintended the botanical department nt Kew t
besides taking charge of the extensive pleasure-grounds, and being employed in
the improvement of the other royal gardens. In 1841, he retired from office,
when Sir Wiliiain Jackson Hooker was appointed director of the botanic gardens
Mr Aiton died at Kew, in 1840, aged 04.
ALES or ALESSE, Alexander, a celebrated theologian of the sixteenth
century, was bom at Edinburgh, April 23d, 1500. He is first found in the
situation of a canon in the cathedral of St Andrews, where he distinguished
himself by entering into the fashionable controversy of the day against Luther.
His zeal for the Roman Catholic religion was staggered by the martyrdom of
Patrick Hamilton ; but it is not probable that his doubts w T ould have been car-
ried farther, if he had not suffered persecution for the slight degree of scepticism
i. F
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
12 WILLIAM ALEXANDER.
already manifested. Being obliged to fly from St Andrews, he retired to Ger-
many^ where he became a thorough convert to the Protestant doctrines* The
Reformation in England induced Ales to go to London, in 1535, where he was
highly esteemed by Cranmer, Latimer, and Cromwell, who were at that time
in favour with the king. Henry regarded him also with favour, and used to
call him "his scholar." Upon the fall of Cromwell, he was obliged to return
to Germany, where the Elector of Brandenburg appointed him professor of
divinity at Frankfort-upoa-the-Oder, in 1640* As a reformer, Ales did not
always maintain the most orthodox doctrines ; hence he was obliged, in 1542
to fly from his chair at Frankfort, and betake himself to Leipsic. He spent the
remainder of his life in that city, as professor of divinity, and died in 1565.
His works are : — 1, ** De necessitate et men to Honor um Operuin, disputatio
proposita in celebri academia Leipsica, ad 29 Not, 1560." 2, " Commentarii in
evaugelium Joannis, et in u tram que epistolam ad Timotheum." 3, " Expos! tio
in Psalm os Davidis." 4, w De Justificatione, contra Oecandnim.* 1 5, ** De
Sancta Trinitate, cum coufutatione erroris ValentinL" 6 t " Recponsio ad triginta
et duos articulos theologorum Lovaniensium." The fifth in this list is the most
favourable specimen of his abilities.
ALEXANDER* Wiixiah, an eminent nobleman, statesman, and poet of the
reign of James VI. and Charles I* The original rank of this personage was that
of a small landed proprietor or laird ; but he was elevated, by dint of his various
accomplishments, and through the favour of the two sovereigns above-mentioned,
to the rank of an earl. His family, which possessed the small estate of Menstrie,
near Stirling, is said to have derived the name Alexander from the prenomen of
their ancestor, Alexander Macdonald, a high lander, who had been settled in this
property by the Earl of Argyle, whose residence of Castle Campbell is in the
neighbourhood. William Alexander is supposed to have first seen the light in
1580, Nature having obviously marked him for a higher destiny than that to
which be was born, he received from his friends the best education which the
time and place could afford, and, at a very early age, he accompanied the young
Earl of Argyle upon his foreign travels, in the capacity of tutor. Previous to
this period, when only fifteen years of age, he had been smit with the charms of
some country beauty, *' the cynosure of neighbouring eyes;" on his return from
the continent, his passion was found to have suffered no abatement. He spent
some time in rural retirement, and wrote no fewer than a hundred sonnets, as a
ventilation to the fervours of his breast ; but all his poetry was in vain, so far as
the lady was concerned, She thought of matrimony, while he thought of love;
and accordingly, on being solicited by a more aged suitor, in other respects eli-
gible, did not scruple to accept his hand. The poet took a more sensible way
of consoling himself for this disappointment than might have been expected ;
he married another lady, the daughter and heiress of Sir William Erskine. His
century of sonnets was published in London in 1(j04, under the title of *' Aurora,
containing the First Fancies of the Author's Youth, by W. Alexander, of Men-
strie/ 1 From the situation of Alexander's estate, near the residence of the king
at Stirling, and in a vale which his majesty frequented for the pleasure of hawk-
ing, be had early been introduced to royal notice ; and, accordingly, it appear*
that, when James removed to London, in 1603, the poet did not remain long
behind, bnt soon became a dependent upon the English court, It is honourable
to Alexander that in this situation he did not, like moat court poets of that agis
employ his pen in the adulation of majesty ; his works breathe a very different
Digitized by
Google
WILLIAM ALEXANDER. 43
strain. Hating studied deeply the ancient philosophers and poets, be descanted
op (.he vanity of grandeur, the value of truth, the abuse of power, and the burthen
of riches. His moralizing* assumed tlie strange shape of tragedies — compositions
not at all designed for the stage, but intended simply to embody the sentiments
which arose in his mind upon such subjects as those we hate mentioned. His
first tragedy was grounded upon the story of Darius, and appeared at Edinburgh
in 1603. He afterwards republished it at London, in 1607, along- with similar
compositions upon the stories of Alexander, Croesus, and Ctesar, under the title
of " Monarch] ck Tragedies, by William Alexander, gentleman of the Princes'
Priry Chamber*" It would thus appear that he had now obtained a place in the
household of Prince Henry ; to whom he had previously addressed a poem or
parrenesis, designed to show how the happiness of a sovereign depends upon
his choosing such councillors as can throw off private grudges, regard public con-
rems, and will not, to betray their seata, become pensioners. This poem, of
which no copy of the original edition is known to exist, except one in the Uni-
versity library at Edinburgh, was, after the death of Henry, addressed to Prince
Charles, who then became heuvapparent ; an economy in poetical, not to speak
of court business, which cannot be sufficiently admired. He was, in 1 (3 13, ap-
pointed one of the gentlemen ushers of the presence to this unfortunate prince*
Xing James is said to have been a warm admirer of the poems of Alexander, to
bare honoured turn with his conversation, and called hi in *' my philosophical poet."
He was now aspiring to the still more honourable character of a divine poet, for
>n 1614, appeared at Edinburgh, his largest and perhaps his most meritorious
production, entitled, " Doomsday, or the Great Day of Judgment, " which has been
several times reprinted*
Hitherto the career of Alexander had been chiefly that of a poet : it was
henceforth entirely that of a courtier. Advanced to the age of thirty-five, the
pure and amiable temperament of the poet gave way before the calculating and
mercenary views of the politician ; and the future years of his life are therefore
less agreeable in recital than those which are past In 1 6 1 4>, he was knighted
by king James, and appointed to the situation of master of requests. In 1651,
the king gave him a grant by his royal deed of the province of Nora Scotia,
which as yet bad not been colon bed. Alexander designed at first to establish
settlers upon this new country, and, as an inducement to the purchase of land, it
was proposed that the king should confer* upon all who paid a hundred and fifty
pounds for six thowand acres, the honour of a knight baronetcy. Owing to the
perplexed politics of the Inst years of king James, he did not get this scheme car-
ried into effect^ but Charles had no sooner acceded than he resolved upon giving it
his support Alexander, in 1625, published a pamphlet, entitled, " An Encour-
agement to Colonies,' 1 the object of which was to state the progress already made,
to recommend the scheme to the nation, and to invite adventurers. It is also
supposed that he hod a hand in " A Brief Relation of the Discovery and Planta-
tion of New England, and of sundry accidents therein occurring from the year
1607 to this present 1622: together with the state thereof as it now standeth,
the general form of government intended, and the division of the whole territory
into counties, baronies, &&" King Charles, who probably considered the scheme
in a two-fold light, as a means of establishing a new colony, and of remunerating
an old servant at the expense of others, conferred upon Sir William Alexander
the rank of Lieutenant of New Scotland, and founded the necessary order
of knights baronets of the same territory. The number of these baronets was
not to exceed a hundred and fifty, and it was ordained that the title should
be hereditary — that they should take precedence of all ordinary knights and
lairds, and of all other gentlemen, except Sir William Alexander, and that they
Digitized by
Google
44 WILLIAM ALEXANDER.
should have place in all his majesty's and his successors* armies, near and about
the royal standard for the defence thereof with other honourable distinctions of
precedency, to them, their wires, and heirs. The ceremony of infeftment or sea-
sine was decreed to take place on the Castle-hill of Edinburgh, the earth and
stone of which were held, by a fiction, to represent the component particles
of certain baronies and lordships on the other side of the Atlantic For the
amusement of the reader, we shall give an account of the equivocal mode of pro-
cedure adopted in this scheme, and of its shameful conclusion, from the fantastic
pen of Sir Thomas Urquhart " It did not satisfy him," says Sir Thomas, in re-
ference to Alexander, (Discovery of a most Exquisite Jewel, Ac., 8vo, 1653 J
" to have a laurel from the Muses, and be esteemed a king among poets, but he
must also be king of some new-found land ; and, like another Alexander, in-
deed, searching after new worlds, have the sovereignty of Nova Scotia ! He was
born a poet, and aimed to be a king ; therefore he would have his royal title
from king James, who was born a king, and aimed to be a poet. Had he
stopped there, it had been well ; but the flame of his honour must have some oil
therewith to nourish it; like another Arthur he must have his knights, though
nothing limited to so small a number; for how many soever, who could have
looked but for one day like gentlemen, and given him but one hundred and
fifty pounds sterling (without any need of a key for opening the gate to enter
through the temple of virtue, which, in former times, was the only way to hon-
our,) they had a scale from him whereby to ascend unto the platforms of virtue ;
which they treading under their feet, did slight the ordinary passages, and to
take the more sudden possession of the temple of honour, went upon obscure by-
paths of their own, towards some secret angiports.and dark postern doors, which were
so narrowthat few of them could get in, until they had left all their gallantry behind
them: Yet such being their resolution, that in they would and be worshipful upon
any terms; they misregarded all formerly used steps of promotion, accounting
them but unnecessary ; and most rudely pushing into the very sanctuary, they
immediately hung out the orange colours," the colour of the ribbon by which the
order was suspended, " to testify their conquest of the honour of knight baronet.
Their king nevertheless, not to stain his royal dignity, or to seem to merit the impu-
tation of selling honour to his subjects, did, for their money, give them land, and
that in so ample a measure, that every one of his knight baronets had, for his hun-
dred and fifty pounds sterling, heritably disposed to him six thousand good and suffi-
cient acres of Nova Scotia ground; which being at the rate of but sixpence an
acre, and not to be thought very dear; considering how prettily, in the respec-
tive parchments of disposition, they were bounded and designed ; fruitful corn-
fields, watered with pleasant rivers, running along most excellent and spacious
meadows; nor did there want abundance of oaken groves, in the midst of very
fertile plains, or if it wanted anything it was the scrivener's or writer's fruit, for
he" [Alexander] " gave orders, as soon as he received the three thousand Scots
marks, that there should be no detect of quantity, or quality, in measure or good-
ness of land, and here and there most delicious gardens and orchards ; with
whatever else could, in matter of delightful ground, best content their fancies; as
if they had made purchase among them of the Elysian fields or Mahomert para-
dise; and although there should have happened a thousand acres more to be put into
the charter, or writing of disposition, than was agreed upon at first, he cared not;
naif a piece to the clerk was able to make him dispense with that But at last
when he had enrolled three hundred knights, who for their hundred and fifty
pieces each had purchased among them several millions of New Caledonian acres,
confirmed to them and theirs for ever, under the great seal, the affixing whereof
was to cost each of them but thirty pieces more ; finding that the society was not
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM ALEXANDER.
45
likely ti» become any more numerous, and thai the ancient gentry of Scotland
esteemed such a whimsical dignity to be a disparagement, rather than any addi-
tion to their former honour ; he bethought himself of a course more profi table to
himself and the future establishment of his own state ; in prosecuting wherenj
without the advice of his knights, who represented both houses of parliament.
clergy and all, like an absolute king indeed* he disposed heritably to the French
for a matter of live or six thousand pounds English money, both the dominion
and property of the whole country of that kingdom of Nova Scotia j leaving the
new baronets to search for land amongst the Seleites in the moon, or turn
knights of the sun ; so dearly hare they bought their orange ribband, which, all
things considered, is, and will be. more honourable to them, or their posterity,
than it is or hath been profitable to either." It thus appears that Alexan-
der^ Not a Scotian scheme, whatever might have been originally contemplated,
degenerated at last into a mere means of raising money by the sale of titles ; a
jystem too much practised in the English reign of James VI., and which gained,
as it deserved, the contempt of all honourable minds. The territory of Nova
Scotia afterwards fell into the hands of the French, who affected to believe
that they had acquired a right to it by a treaty entered into with tlte king of
Groat Britain, in 1632, in which the country of Acadia was ceded to them- In
the treaty of peace transacted between tlie two countries, in lTti.'J, it was success*
fully asserted by the British government that Nova Scotia was totally distinct
from Acadia, and accordingly the territory reverted to Britain, along with Can*
ada, Tlie country, however, having become the property of other individuals
during the usurpation of the French, it appears thru the Nova Scotia baronets
have very slight prospects of ever regaining the lands to which their titles were
originally attached.
In 1626, Sir William Alexander, was, by the farour of Charles L, made secre-
tary of state for Scotland; an office to which the salary of ilDO a-year, being
that of a good mercantile elerk in the present day, was then attached, tn 1630,
by the further favour of his sovereign, be was raised to the peerage under the
title of viscount Stirling; and in 1633, at the coronation of king Charles in
Holyrood chapel, he was promoted to the rank of on earl under the same title. He
held the office of secretary during fifteen years, and gained the credit of being a
moderate statesman in the m.dst of many violent political scenes. It does not ap-
pear, however, that he was a popular character. Such esteem as he might have
gained by his poetry, seems to have been lost in consequence of the arts by which
bis sovereign endeavoured to give htm riches. A permission which he acquired,
probably in his character of lieutenant of Nova Scotia, to coin base money, be-*
came a grievance to the community, and procured him much obloquy* He had
erected a splendid mans inn at Stirling out of his ill-acquired gains, and affixed
upon its front his armorial Wirings, with the motto ■* I'er Mare, per Terras."
This was parodied, as we are informed by tl.e sarcastic Scott of ScotstorveL into
u Per metre, per turners," in allusion to the sources of his wealth* the people be-
lieving ih.it the royal favour had a reference to his lordship -s poetry, while *nr-
ws, or black farthing as they were otherwise called, had been one of the
Aapes in which this favour was expressed The house still remains, a monument
of the taste of the poet.
The earl of Stirling, in IC37, published a complete edition of his poetical
works, under the general title of " Recreations with the Muses/' The work con-
tained his four M Monarch] ck Tragedies," his "Doomsday," the *' Parienesis to
Prince Henry/ 1 and " Jonathan, an Heroick Poem Intended, the first hook,"
the whole revised and very much improved by the author. He died in 1640, leav-
ing three sons and two daitghters, whose posterity was supposed to have been coin-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC _
46 ALEXANDER L
pletely extinct, till a claimant appeared in 1830, as descended from one of thy
younger branches of the family, and who has assumed die titles of Stirling and
Devon. Considered as a poet, Alexander is intilled to considerable praise. u Hi*
style is certainly neither pure nor correct, which may perhaps be attributed t*>
his long familiarity with the Scottish language ; but his versification is in gene*
ral much superior to that of his contemporaries, and approaches nearer to Uw
elegance of modern times than could have been expected from one who wrote so
much. There are innumerable beauties scattered orer the whole of his works,
but particularly in his songs and sonnet* ; the former are a species of irregular
odes, in which the sentiment* occasionally partaking of the quaintness of his age,
is more frequently new and forcibly expressed. The powers of mind displayed
in his Doomsday and Parcenesis are very considerable, although we are frequently
able to trace the allusions and imagery to the language of holy writ ; and he ap-
pears to have been less inspired by the sublimity than by the awful importance of
his. subject to rational beings. A habit of moralizing pervades all his writings ;
but in the * Doomsday ' he appears deeply impressed with his subject, and more
anxious to persuade the heart than to delight the imagination/ 1 — Johnson and
Chalmers? Entflith Poets, edit, 1310, voL v-
The Earl of Stirling was employed in his latter years in the task of revising
the version of the Psalms prepared by king James, which duty was imposed upon
him by the royal paraphrast himself. In a letter to his friend, Dmmmond of
Hawthornden, 38th of April, 1630, Alexander says, "Brother, I received your
List letter, with the psalm you sent, which I lb ink very well done : 1 had done
the same long before it came ; but he [king James] prefers his own to all else ;
though, perchance when you see it, you will tlunk it the worst of the three. No
man must meddle with that subject, and therefore I advise you to take no more
pains therein.** In consideration of the pains which the Earl had bestowed upon
this subject, Charles I., on the 28th of December, IG27, granted a license to his
lordship, to print the late king's version of the Psalms exclusively for thirty-one
years. The first edition appeared at Oxford, in 1631, The king endeavoured
to enforce the use of his father's version alone throughout liis dominions ; and,
if he had been successful, the privilege would hare been a source of immense
profit to the Earl of Stirling. But the royal wishes were resisted by the Scot-
tish church, and were not very respectfully obeyed any where else; and ihe
breaking out of the civil war soon after rendered the privilege entirely useless. l
ALEXANDER L t aurnamed Acer, or the Fierce,, king of Scots from 1106 to
1 194, was the fifth son of Malcolm III. by his wife Margaret of England.
Lord Hailes conjectures that his name was bestowed in honour of Pope Alexan-
der II. ; a citxumstance worthy of attention, as it was (he means of introducing
ihe most common and familiar christian name in Scotland. The date of Alex-
ander's birth is not known ; but as his Four elder brothers were all under age in
1093, at the death of their father, he must have been in the bloom of life at his
accession to the throne. He succeeded hi* brother Edgar, January 8, llOti-T,
and immediately after married Sybilla, the natural daughter of Henry I. o!
England, who had married bis sister Matlldis, or Maud. Such an alliance was
not then considered dishonourable. Alexander was active in enforcing obedi-
ence to his dominion, and in suppressing the hands of rebels or robbers with
which the northern part* of the kingdom were infested ; but the chief events of
his reign relate to the efforts made by the English church to assert a supremacy
over that of Scotland. These efforts were resisted by the king of Scots, with
1 riie eorpse of Use Earl of Sliding: wns deposited in a leaden coffin hi the fnmily -aisle
in tho church of Stirling, shore ground, and remained entire for upwards af a hundred
^ears.— - Paragraph from an old iiettfp&pLY.
Digitized by
Google
ALEXANDER II.— ALEXANDER III.
47
steady perseverance, and ultimate success, notwithstanding that the Pope counte-
nanced the claims of the English prelates It is to be presumed that this spirit
would bare incited the Scottish monarch to maintain the independency of hit
kingdom, had it ever been called in question during his reign, Alexander died
April 27, 1124, after a reign of seventeen years and three months. As he left
no issue, he was succeeded by his next and lasir-surviving brother David, so memo-
rable for his bounty to the church. Alexander was also a pious monarch. Al-
dred, in his genealogy of the English kings, says of him, that " he was humble
and courteous to the clergy, but, to the rest of his subjects, terrible beyond mea-
sure ; high-spirited, always endeavouring to compass things beyond his power ;
not ignorant of letters ; zealous in establishing churches, collecting relics, and
providing vestments and books for the clergy ; liberal even to profusion, and
taking delight in the offices of charity to the poor**' His donations to the
church were very considerable. He made a targe grant of lands to the church
of St Andrews, increased the revenue of the monastery of Dunfermline, which
his parents had founded, established a colony of canons regular at home, and
built a monastery on Inch-cohn in the Firth of Forth, in gratitude for having
been preserved from a tempest on that island
ALEXANDER IL, the only legitimate son of king William, somamed the
Lion, was born in 1109. He succeeded his father, December 4, 1214, in his
seventeenth year, and was crowned next day at Scone. Alexander IL is cha-
racterised by Pordiin as a pious, just, and brave king— as the shield of the
church, the safe-guard of the people, and the friend of the miserable. He es-
poused the cause of the English barons against king John, which led to mutual
depredations between the two sovereigns; but on the accession of Henry 111- to
the crown of England, peace was restored; and in 1231, the friendly inter-
course of the two nations was established by the marriage of the king of Scot-
land to Joan, eldest sister of the king of England* This princess died in 1838,
without issue ; and in the following year Alexander married Mary de Couci, the
scion of a French house, which, in its motto, disclaimed royalty, and rested for
distinction on its own merits :
Je guis ni n>|, ni prmcu am&l —
Jti suis le seigntur tie Couci*
During the life of Joan, the British monarchs came to no open rupture, their
friendly intimacy being only occasionally interrupted by Henry discovering &
deposition to revive the claim of hnnmge from the king of Scotland, which had
been given up by Richard L, and by Alexander Insisting on his claim to the
three northern counties of England ; but shortly after the death of Joan, na-
tional jealousies broke out, and in 1214, both princes raised armies and prepared
for war. By the mediation, however* of several English barons, hostilities were
prevented, and a peace concluded. Much of Alexander's reign was occupied in
suppressing insurrections of the Celtic inhabitants of Scotland. He died A.D-
1249, in one of the islands of the Hebrides, while engaged in subjecting Angus,
the Lord of Argyle, who refused Ins homage to the Scottish sovereign, He left
by his second wife one son, who is the subject of the following article.
ALEXANDER III-, born at Roxburgh, September 4, 1241, succeeded his
father in the eighth year of his age. He was knighted and crowned only five
days after his father's death — a precipitation adopted to prevent the interference
of the king of England. When only a year old, Alexander had been betrothed
to Margaret eldest daughter of Henry ILL, a princess of his own age ; and in
1351, their nuptials were celebrated at York with great pomp. On the ground
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
48
ALEXANDER in.
of this union, Henry interested himself in the affairs of Scotland, and the ycitng
prince was a frequent visitor at the court of his father-in-law. The English
monarch, taking advantage of Alexander's youth and other circumstances, endea-
voured to prevail upon him to do homage for his crown and kingdom of Scot-
land ; hut the young king, with a fortitude and prudence beyond his yean,
and which gave promise of his future decision, resisted the requisition, saying
that he could not treat of affairs of state without the advice of his parliament.
During Alexander's minority, the country was divided into factions, and various
struggles for ascendancy took place ; but the administration was latterly com*
oiitted to fifteen of the leading chiefs or barons. Alexander had reached the
twenty-second year of his age, when his kingdom was invaded by one of the
most formidable armaments that had ever sailed from Norway. Haco, king oi
that country, with a fleet of one hundred and sixty ships, freighted with many
thousand northern warriors, who carried terror to almost all the shores of Europe,
sailed towards Scotland in the summer of 1963, and after making himself master
of the islands of Arran and Bute, arrived in the bay of Largs, near the mouth of
the Clyde, and endeavoured to effect a landing. Here a Scottish army, under
Alexander, assembled to resist the invasion ; and here, on the 2d of October,
after a fierce and bloody contest, the Norwegians were repulsed with great loss.
A storm arising, completed the dissipation or destruction of their fleet Haco
escaped with difficulty through the strait between Sky and the mainland, since
called Kyle Hacken, and reaching the Orkneys, died there, as is said, of a broken
heart By this defeat, all the islands of the western sea, including that of Man,
but excepting those of Orkney and Shetland, submitted to Alexander.
From this period to the death of Alexander, Scotland enjoyed tranquillity,
only disturbed by the pretensions of the pope and the encroachments of the
clergy, both of which Alexander was successful in resisting. Religious crusades
were at this time the rage over Europe, and Scotland did not escape the infec-
tion, as many of her bravest barons perished in Palestine. In 1274, Alexander
attended the coronation of his brother-in-law, Edward L, at Westminster, and
after the custom of the times did homage for the lands which he held of him in
England. Six months after this, Margaret queen of Scotland died, leaving one
daughter and two sons — Margaret, Alexander, and David. David died unmar-
ried in 1281. Margaret was married in 1282, to Eric king of Norway, and
died in the following year, after giving birth to an infant daughter, who re-
ceived her own name. Alexander was married in 1283 to die daughter of Guy
earl of Flanders, and died in the following year without issue. Thus, in the
course of a few yean, was the unhappy king of Scotland deprived of his wife
and nil his children- — (he only remaining descendant of his body being the
Maiden of Norway, as alio ia billed in Scottish history, an infant grandchild re-
tiding in a foreign land- In 1285, Alexander, to provide against the evils ol
a disputed succession, at the request of his nobility, married Joletta, daughter of
the Count do Dreux ; but shortly after his marriage, in* riding along a precipi-
tous road between U runt island and Kinghom, his horse fell over a rock, and the
unfortunate monarch was kilkd. This event Look place on the 1 6 th of March,
128G, in the 45lh year of his age and 37th of his reign.
With Alexander III, terminated a race of kings, who, from the accession of
Malcolm Geau-Mohr, had distinguished themselves by their activity in the ad-
ministration of justice, and their courage in maintaining the rights and indepei -
dence of their country against a powerful and ton often *n insidious foe. Few
annals of a rude people, indeed, can present amors remarkable series of patriot U
inonarctis than those with whom Scotland was blessed from the middle of the ele-
venth to the close of the thirteenth century, whether we consider their wisdom
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
DAVID ALLAN.
49
and impartiality as legislators, their prudence as politicians, or their bravery as
warriors, for Malcolm the Maiden and the terms upon which William the Lion
effected his release from captivity must only be considered as exceptions to the
general excellence of their conduct But with the death of Alexander HI., the
peace and prosperity of the country was broken up ; and much as he was la-
mented by the people, and gloomy as were their forebodings on his decease, no
anticipation could exceed the real calamities in which the country was involved
by his unhappy and untimely end.
ALLAN, David, a painter of great merit, was born at Alloa, February 13th,
1744. Re was the son of Mr David Allan, shore-master at that small port The
mother of Allan, whose maiden name was Gullan, brought him prematurely into
the world, and died a few days after his birth. The young painter had so small
a mouth that no nurse could be found in the place fitted to give him suck : at
length, one being heard of, who lived at the distance of some miles, he was
packed up in a basket amidst cotton, and sent off under the charge of a man
who carried him on horseback, the journey being rendered additionally danger-
ous by a deep snow. The horse happened to stumble, the man fell offj and the
tiny wretch was ejected from the basket into the snow, receiving as he fell a
severe cut upon his head. Such were the circumstances under which Mr David
Allan commenced the business of existence.
Even after having experienced the tender cares of his nurse, misfortune con-
tinued to harass him. In the autumn of 1745, when he must have been about
eighteen months old, a battery was erected at Alloa, to defend the passage of
the Forth against the attempts of Prince Charles's army. While the men were
firing the cannon for experiment, the maid entrusted with the charge of young
Allan ran across the open space in front, at the moment when they were dis-
charged, and he only escaped cfeath by a hair-breadth.
His genius for designing was first developed by accident Being con-
fined at home with a burnt foot, bis father one day said to him, " You idle little
rogue, you are kept from school doing nothing ! come, here is a bit of chalk, draw
something with it upon the floor." He took the chalk, and began to delineate
figures of houses, animals, and other familiar objects ; in all of which he succeed-
ed so well that the chalk was seldom afterwards out of his hand. When he was
about ten years of age, his pedagogue happened to exercise his authority over
some of the boys in a rather ludicrous manner : Allan immediately drew a cari-
cature of the transaction upon a slate, and handed it about for the amusement of
his companions. The master of the ferule, an old vain conceited person, who used
to strut about the school dressed in a tartan night-cap and long tartan gown, got
hold of the picture, and right soon detected that he himself was the most con-
spicuous and the most ridiculous figure. The satire was so keen, and the laugh
which it excited sunk so deep, that the object of it was not satisfied till he had
made a complaint to old Allan, and had the boy taken from his school When
questioned by his father how he had the effrontery to insult his master, by repre-
senting him so ridiculously on his slate, his answer was, " I only made it like
him, and it was all for fun !"
The father observed the decided genius of his son, and had the good sense to
offer it no resistance. At this time, the establishment of the Messrs Foulis' aca-
demy of Arts at Glasgow was making some noise in the country. Allan, there-
fore, resolved to apprentice his son to those gentlemen upon the terms given out
in their prospectus of the institution. On the 25th of February, 1755, when
exactly eleven years of age, the young draughtsman was bound apprentice to the
Messrs Foulis for seven years, to attend their painting academy in the univer-
sity of Glasgow. In Newhall house there is a sketch in oil, done by him, repre*
I. G
Digitized by
—
50 DAVID ALLAN.
seating the inside of the academy, with an exact portrait of Robert Foulis in the
act of criticising a large picture, and giving instructions to his principal painter
about it
In the year 1764, some of his performances attracted the notice of lord Oath-
cart, whose seat, Shaw Park, was situated in Clackmannanshire near Alloa.
Lady Gathcart introduced him to the notice of lady Frances Erskine, daughter
of the insurgent earl of Mar, and mother of the gentleman to whom the peerage
was restored in 1824 ; as also to lady Charlotte Erskine, to Mrs Abercromby ot
Tullibody, mother of Sir Ralph, and to some other personages of distinction in
the neighbourhood of his birth-place. By the associated purses of these kind pa-
trons, Allan was enabled to go to Italy, where he studied with unremitting appli-
cation for eleven years. During his residence there, lady Cathcart used to write
to him with all the care and affection of a mother. In 1773, while living at
Rome, he gained the prize medal given by the academy of St Luke for the best
specimen of historical composition ; being the only Scotchman who had ever
reached that honour, besides Mr Gavin Hamilton.
After his return in 1777, Allan resided for about two years in London; but,
falling into a bad state of health, he was ordered home to Scotland for a change of
air. Soon after his arrival in Edinburgh, he was appointed successor to Runci-
man (deceased), as master and director of the academy established by the Board of
Trustees for Manufactures and Improvements, for the purpose of diffusing a
knowledge of the principles of the fine arts and elegance of design, in the vari-
ous manufactures and works which required to be figured and ornamented ; a
charge for which he was peculiarly well qualified, by the extensive knowledge
he possessed of every branch of the art He retained the situation till his death.
Allan was much admired for his talents in composition, the truth with which
he delineated nature, and the characteristic humour which distinguished his pic-
tures, drawings, and etchings. There are several engravings from his pictures,
as, " The Origin of Fainting, or the Corinthian maid drawing the shadow of her
lover," and four in aqua-tinta by Paul Sandby, from drawings made by Allan
when at Rome, representing die sports diving the carnival. Several of the
figures were portraits of persons well known to the English who visited Rome be-
tween 1770 and 1780. There is one caricature by Allan, which is well known
to Scottish collectors: it represents the interior of a church or meeting-house at
Dunfermline, at the moment when an imprudent couple are rebuked by the cler-
gyman. There is a drollery about the whole of this performance that never fails
to amuse. The alliance of his genius to that of our national poets, led Allan, in
1788, to publish an edition of the Gentle Shepherd, with characteristic drawings.
He also published a collection of the most humorous of the old Scottish songs,
each illustrated by a characteristic etching. At his death, which happened on
the 6th of August, 1796, he left a series of drawings designed for the poems of
Burns, in an equally graphic and humorous style. There is one property which
runs through all the designs of Allan, and by which his productions may be distin-
guished at the most casual glance : this is a peculiar elegance of form which he
always gives to the limbs of his figures — elegance to such a degree, that, in many
cases, it may be pronounced out of nature.
Allan, by his wife, whom he married in 1788, left one son, bearing his own
name, and who was sent out as a cadet to India, and one daughter named Barbara.
In person, our Scottish Hogarth, as he was called, had nothing attractive. The
misfortunes attending his entrance into the world were such as nothing in after
life could repair. " His figure was a bad resemblance of his humorous precursor
of the English metropolis. He was under the middle size ; of a slender, feeble
make ; with a long, sharp, lean, white, coarse face, much pitted by the small-pox,
Digitized by
Google
CHARLES ALSTON, M.D. 51
and fair hair. His large prominent eyes, of a light colour, were weak, near-
sighted, and not very animated. His nose was long and high, his mouth wide,
and both ill-shaped. His whole exterior to strangers appeared unengaging, tri-
fling, and mean; and his deportment was timid and obsequious. The pre-
judices naturally excited by these disadvantages at introduction, were, how-
ever, dispelled on acquaintance; and, as he became easy and pleased, gra-
dually yielded to agreeable sensations ; till they insensibly vanished, and at last
were not only overlooked, but, from the effect of contrast, even heightened the at-
tractions by which they were so unexpectedly followed. When in company he
esteemed, and which suited his taste, as restraint wore offj his eye imperceptibly
became active, bright, and penetrating ; his manner and address quick, lively, and
interesting — always kind, polite, and respectful ; his conversation open and gay,
humorous without satire, and playfully replete with benevolence, observation, and
anecdote. 1 ' — Brown's edition of the Gentle Shepherd, 1808.
The author who thus forcibly delineates his external appearance, gives the fol-
lowing character of his genius. " As a painter, at least in his own country, he
neither excelled in drawing, composition, colouring, nor effect Like Hogarth,
too, beauty, pace, and grandeur, of individual outline and form, or of style, con-
stitute no part of his merit He was no Gorregio, Raphael, or Michael Angela
He painted portraits as well as Hogarth, below the middle size ; but they are void
of all charms of elegance, and of the claro-obscuro, and are recommended by no-
thing but a strong homely resemblance. As an artist and a man of genius, his
characteristic talent lay in expression, in the imitation of nature with truth
and humour, especially in the representation of ludicrous scenes in low life. His
eye was ever on the watch for every eccentric figure, every motley group, or ridi-
culous incident, out of which his pencil or his needle could draw innocent enter-
tainment and mirth."
ALSTON, Charlbs, M.D. an eminent botanist, was born in 1 6 88, in Lanarkshire,
and spent his early years at Hamilton palace, under the patronage of the duchess
of Hamilton. Her grace wished him to study the law, but he preferred botany
and medicine, and accordingly, in 1716, set out for Ley den, where those sciences
were at that time taught by the illustrious Boerhaave. Here he found a great
number of young Scotsmen engaged in the same pursuit, and all inspired with an
uncommon degree of enthusiam in their studies, which they had caught from
their master. Alston, after taking his degree as doctor of physic, returned to his
native country, and began to practise in Edinburgh. He obtained the sinecure
office of king's botanist, through the influence of the duke of Hamilton, heritable
keeper of Holyrood-house, to which the garden was attached. This garden he
enriched by large collections which he had made in Holland, where botanical
science was then more highly cultivated than in any other country in Europe.
In 1720, notwithstanding that a botanical class was taught in the college by a
professor of eminence named Preston, he began a course of lectures in the king's
garden. Preston, at length waxing old, Alston was, in 1738, chosen to succeed
him, as professor of botany and materia medica united. He was exceedingly
laborious in his duties as a professor, giving a course on botany every summer,
and one on materia medica every winter ; and never sparing any pains which
he thought could be conducive to the progress of his pupils. The celebrated
Dr Fothergill, in his character of Dr Russell^ bears ample testimony to the assi-
duity of Dr Alston, who had been his master ; and describes in glowing language
the benefit which those who attended him had the means of reaping, his caution
in speculation, and how laborious he was in experiment For the assistance of
bis pupils, he published, about 1740, a list of the officinal plants cultivated in the
Edinburgh medical garden. Of Linnaus's system, which was first promulgated in
Digitized by
Google ^^
52 ROBERT A1VES— ADAM ANDERSON.
1736, Dr Alston, like many other philosophers of bis day, was a steady opponent.
He published a paper against it, on the sexes of plants, in the first volume of M Physi-
cal and Literary Essays, " a miscellany which was commenced at Edinburgh, io
1751. The controversy which took place at that period amongst naturalists hai
now lost all its interest, seeing that the method of Linnaeus, after serving a useful
purpose, has been superseded by the natural system, to the foundation of which
Linnaeus in no small degree contributed, but which it was left to Jussieu and De
Candolle to mature. Dr Alston also contributed some articles to an Edinburgh
miscellany entitled ** Medical Essays ; " the most important is one on opium. In
1753, he published an introduction to Dr Patrick Blair's Index Matertit Mtdicct,
a work which resembled bis own index in a considerable degree. This in-
troduction was a separate work, and was entitled » Tirocinium Botanicum
Edinbur$€i%se. Dr Alston, aw the contemporary of the first Monro, and prof ester
of a kindred branch of science, was by no mean* unworthy of either bis time
or hii place. He mutt be considered at one of those who have contributed
to the exaltation of the college of Edinburgh, as a school of medical science
He died cm the 22nd of November, 1760, in the seventy -seventh year of his age.
ALVES, Rodsbt, a poet and miscellaneous writer, born at Elgin, in 1715, took
his degrees in philosophy at Aberdeen, where he enjoyed the friendship of Dr Beattit,
and afterwards, though designed for the church, settled as parish schoolm aster of
Desk/or d. From this place he removed, in H73, to Banff, whence he migrated in
1770, to Edinburgh, on account of a disappointment in Iotc. In Edinburgh he
subsisted by teaching such pr irate persons as chose to employ him, \a the Greek,
Roman, French, and Italian classics ; like a true poet, he was not greatly solicitous
about the means of subsistence* Mr Creech, in 17S2 P published a volume of mis-
cellaneous poems by Aires: in 1789, appeared another, under the title of ^Edin-
burgh, a Poem, in two parts, and the Weeping Bard, in sixteen cantos." In 1784,
Alves commenced a laborious work entitled, "Sketched of a History of Literature/*
which was in the press when he died, January 1st, 1794, and was afterwards
published by Dr Alexander Chapman, at whose press it wot printed for the
intended benefit of the author, This work contains lives and characters of the most
eminent writers in different languages, ancient and modern, with critical remarks on
their works, together with several literary essays; though miserably inaccurate in every
particular, it shows an extensive acquaintance with ancient and modern learning.
After his death was published, in 1801, " the Banks of Esk," and other poems, a small
IZmo, vol, In a vigorously written preface he repels the aspersions and ridicule
cast upon Scotland and Scotsmen, by many English literary men of the period,
especially Churchill, Wilkg, Junius, and Johnson - anil in the introductory canto to
" the Banks of Esk/ 1 be retaliates on them with great cleverness and vivacity.
ANDERSON, An am, author of the largest British compilation upon commercial
history, was a native of Scotland, born about the year 1692. Having removed to
London, he was for forty years a clerk in the South Sea bouse, and at length
was appointed chief clerk of the Stock and New Annuities in that establishment,
in which situation be continued till his death. He was appointed one of the
trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia, by charter dated June 8th, 5 Geo,
IL He was ako one of the court ot assistants of the Scots Corporation in Lon-
don. In 1702, he published his work, entitled, "A Historical and Chronologi-
cal Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, from the earliest accounts to the pre-
sent time ; containing a history of the large commercial interests of the British
Empire," &c. Loud. 2 vols, folio. The elaborate character of this work, says
much for the industry of the author. It was subsequently improved in a new edi-
tion by Darijl iiacp hereon, 4 vols, quarto j and a manual abridgement oi the
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
ALEXANDER AVDERSON.
53
wnrk may still be considered a want in our literature. Mr Anderson died booh
niter tie bad given it to the world, January 10th. 1705, at the a<je of seven t /-three.
ANDERSON, Alexander, a very eminent mathematician, born at Aberdeen,
near the close of the sixteenth century. How or where he acquired his mathe-
matical education is not known; he probably studied belle* lettres and philoso-
phy in his native university. He comes into notice at Paris* early in the seven-
teenth century, as a private teacher or professor of mathematics. In that city,
between the years 1612 and 1G19, he published or edited vorio us geometrical
and algebraical tracts, which are conspicuous for their ingenuity and elegance.
It is doubtful whether he was ever acquainted with the famous Vieta, Master of
Requests at Paris, who died in 1603 ; hut his pore taste and skill in mathemati-
cal investigation pointed him out to the executors of that illustrious man, who
had found leisure, in the intervals of a laborious profession, to cultivate and
extend the ancient geometry, and by adopting a system of general symbols, to lay
the foundation, and begin the superstructure, of algebraical science, as the person
most proper for revising and publishing- his valuable manuscripts, Anderson, how-
ever, did not confine himself to the doty of a mere editor; he enriched the text with
learned ornaments, and gave neat demonstrations of those propositions which had
been left imperfect. He afterwards produced a specimen of the application of
geometrical analysis, which is distinguished by its clearness and classic elegance.
The works of this eminent person amount to six thin quarto volumes, now very
scarce. These are, — I. Supplementum Apollonii Redivivh sive analysis pro-
Id emat is hactenus desiderati ad Apollonii Pergaei doctrinam *f£i ¥fwtw* a
Marino Ghetaldo Fatritio Hegusino hnjusque non ita pridem institutam, &c
Paris, I6l b 2, 4to. This tract refers to the problem of inclinations, by which, in
certain cases, the application of the curve called the conchoid is supe reeded, — i
2. AmaXoyi* ; Pro Zetetico Apollonian! problematis a se jam pridem edito in
fiupplemeoto Apollonii RedivivL Being an addition to the former work. Paris,
1615, 4to,— 3. The edition of the works of Vieta. Paris, 1615, 4to. —
4. Ad Angulannn Soctionem Analytica Theoremata mBoktiurttpiL^ &e» Paris,
16T5, 4to. — 5. V indicia* Archimedis, &c Paris, 1G 16, 4to.- — 6. Alexandri An-
derson i Scoti Exercitatiomuu Mathematicarum Decis Prima, &c Paris, 1 til if, 4 to.
All these pieces, of this excellent geometrician, are replete with the linest spe-
cimens of pure geometrical exercises that have ever perhaps been produced by
any authors, ancient or modern. Besides these, literary history is not aware cf
any other publications by Anderson, though probably there may have been others.
Indeed, from the last piece it folly appears that be had at least written, if not
published, another, viz* A Treatise on the Mensuration of Solids, perhaps with a
reference to gauging; as in several problems, where he critically examines the
treatise of Kepler on cask-gauging, he often refers to his own work on stereo-
metry.
This eminent person was cousin-german to Mr David Anderson of Finshaugh,
a gentleman who also possessed a singular turn for mathematical knowledge, and
who could apply hia acquirements to SO many useful purposes that he was popu-
larly known at Aberdeen by the name of Davie Do-a'-th i ngs. He acquired pro-
digious local fame by removing a large rock, which had formerly obstructed the
entrance to the harbour of Aberdeen, Mathematical genius seems to have been
in some degree inherent in the whole family; for, through a daughter of Mr Da-
vid Anderson, it readied the celebrated James Gregory, inventor of the reflecting
telescope, who was the son of that lady, and is said to have received, from her,
the elements of mathematical knowledge. From the same lady was descended
the late Dr Re id of Glasgow, who was not less eminent for his acquaintance with
the mathematics, than for his metaphysical writings.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
54 JAMES ANDERSON.
ANDERSON, Jakes, an eminent antiquary, was the son of the Rev. Patrick
Anderson, who had been ejected for non-conformity at the Restoration, and after-
wards suffered imprisonment in the Bass, for preaching in a conventicle at Edin-
burgh. The subject of this memoir, whose brother, Adam, has already been
commemorated, was born, August 5th, 1662, and in 1077, is found studying
philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, where, after finishing a scholastic edu-
cation, he obtained the degree of Master of Arts, on the 97th of May, 1680.
He chose the law for his profession, and, after serving an apprenticeship under
Sir Hugh Faterson of Bannockburn, was admitted a member of the society of
writers to the signet in 169 1. In this branch of the legal profession, the study of
written antiquities in some measure forces itself upon the practitioner; and it
appears that Anderson, though a diligent and able man of business, became in
time too fond of the accessory employment to care much for the principal. A
circumstance which occurred in 1704, decided his fate by tempting him into the
field of antiquarian controversy. The question of the union of the two countries
was then very keenly agitated— on the one side with much jealous assertion of
the national independency — and on the other, with not only a contempt for the
boasts of the Scots, but a revival of the old claims of England for a superiority
or paramouncy over their country. A lawyer named Attwood, in 1704, pub-
lished a pamphlet in which 'all the exploded pretensions of Edward I. were
brought prominently into view, and a direct dominion in the crown of England
asserted over that of Scotland. For this work, Mr Anderson, though altogether
unknown to Mr Attwood, was cited as an evidence and eye-witness, to vouch some
of the most important original charters and grants by the kings of Scotland,
which Attwood maintained were in favour of the point he laboured to establish.
Mr Anderson, in consequence of such an appeal, thought himself bound in duty
to his country, to publish what he knew of the matter, and to vindicate some of
the best of the Scottish kings, who were accused by Attwood of a base and vo-
luntary surrender of their sovereignty. Accordingly, in 1705, he published " An
Essay, showing that the crown of Scotland is imperial and independent," Edin-
burgh, 8vo. which was so acceptable to his country, that, besides a reward, thanks
were voted to him by parliament, to be delivered by the lord Chancellor, in pre-
sence of her Majesty's high Commissioner and the Estates; at the same time that
Att wood's book, like others of the same nature, was ordered to be burnt at the
cross of Edinburgh by the hands of the common hangman. Mr Anderson's pub-
lication is now of little value, except for the charters attached to. it in the shape
of an appendix.
This affair was the crisis of Anderson's fate in life. He had, in the course of
his researches for the essay, collected a large mass of national papers; the study
of charters was just then beginning to be appreciated by antiquaries; the enthu-
siam of the nation was favourable, for the moment, to any undertaking which
would show the ancient respectability of its separate system of government. Un-
der all these circumstances, Anderson found it easy to secure the patronage of the
Scottish estates towards a design for engraving and publishing a series of fao
I similes of the royal charters, previous to die reign of James I., and of seals, me-
dals, and coins, from the earliest to the present time. In November, 1706, he
had a parliamentary grant of three hundred pounds towards this object He then
proceeded vigorously with the work, and in March, 1707, had not only expend-
ed the three hundred pounds granted by parliament; but five hundred and ninety
pounds besides, which he had drawn from his own funds. A committee reported
the facts; and the estates, while they approved of his conduct, recommended to
the Queen to bestow upon him an additional contribution of one thousand and
fifty pounds sterling. Another parliamentary act of grace — and one of the very
Digitized by
Google
JAMES ANDERSON, D.D. 55
last proceedings pf the Scottish estates-— was to recommend him to the Queen
u as a person meriting her gracious favour, in conferring any office or trust upon
him, as her. Majesty in her royal wisdom, shall think fit"
Quite intoxicated with this success, Anderson now gave up his profession, and,
resolving to devote himself entirely to the national service as an antiquary, re-
moved to London, in order to superintend the progress of his work. The event
only added another proof to what is already abundantly clear — that scarcely any
prospects in the precarious fields of literature, ought to tempt a man altogether to
resign a professional means of subsistence. The money voted by the expiring
parliament is said to have never been paid; — the British senate perhaps consider,
ing itself not the proper heir of the Scottish estates, Apparently in lieu of
money, he was favoured, in 1715, with the appointment of post-master general
for Scotland ; but of this he was deprived in little more than two years. What
progress he now made with his great work is not very clearly known. He is
found, in 1718, advertising that those who might wish to encourage it " could see
specimens at his house, above the post-office in Edinburgh. " As the expense of
engraving must have borne hard upon his diminished resources, he would appear
to have digressed for some years into an employment of a kindred nature, at-
tended with greater facilities of publication. In 1727, he published the two first
volumes of his well known " Collections relating to the History of Mary, Queen
of Scotland, 11 Edinburgh, 4to, which was speedily completed by the addition of
two other volumes. This work contains a large mass of valuable original docu-
ments connected with the Marian controversy; but George Chalmers, who went
over the same ground, insinuates that there is too much reason to suspect his ho-
nesty as a transcriber. If the prejudices of the two men are fairly balanced
against the reputations which they respectively bear as antiquaries, we must ac-
knowledge that the charge may not be altogether groundless.
Anderson died in 1728 of a stroke of apoplexy, leaving his great work unfin-
ished. The plates were sold, in 1729, by auction, at £530, and it was not till
1737 that the work appeared, under the title of " Selectus Diplomatum et Nu-
niiamytiim Scotia) Thesaurus," the whole being under the care of the celebrated
Thomas Ruddiman, who added a most elaborate preface.
ANDERSON, James, D.D. author of a large and useful work, entitled, " Royal
Genealogies," was the brother of Adam Anderson, author of the Commercial
History. He was for many years minister of the Scots presbyterian church in
Swallow-street, Piccadilly, and was well known among the people of that persua-
sion in London, by the nick-name # of Bishop Anderson. He was a learned but
imprudent man, and lost a considerable part of his property from too deep dab-
bling in the South-Sea scheme. His great work a* an author was, " Royal
Genealogies, or the Genealogical Tables of Emperors, Kings, and Princes, from
Adam(! ) to these Times," London, folio, 1732. The compilation of this huge
work, in which he was aided by many eminent personages, whose families enter-
ed into its plan, cost him, according to his own account, the labour of seven
years. It is certainly the completest work of the kind in existence, though with
uo pretensions to discrimination. The author says very frankly in his preface,
that, " He has avoided all terms and expressions that may give offence to any nation
or family, to any person or party ; having nothing to do with the national con-
troversies of historians, nor with the ecclesiastical and religious debates of theolo-
gians, nor with the politics of statesmen, nor with the private jangles of the cri-
tics in a work of this kind, but only with facts and plain truth : so that he has
let every nation enjoy its own faith; and if any find fault, he hopes they will
readily excuse him, not having designed to offend them, and is willing to make
satisfaction, if he lives to publish a second edition." Dr Anderson also wrote
Digitized by
^
5G JAMES ANDERSON.
** The Constitutions of the Free Masons," being the chaplain of that body in
London. The dates of this worthy man's birth and death are not ascertained.
He lived in a bouse opposite to St James's church, Piccadilly.
ANDERSON, Jambs, an agricultural and miscellaneous writer of great
merit, was the son of a farmer at Hermiston, in the county of Midlothian, where
he was born in the year 1739. His father dying when he was very young, he
was educated by his guardian to occupy the farm, which accordingly he began to
manage at the early age of fifteen. It may be supposed that he could not hare
been intrusted with so important a charge, if he had not already manifested
symptoms of superior character and intellect ; much less, without such qualifica-
tions, could he have discharged it, as he is said to hare done, with the approba-
tion of all who had occasion to observe his operations. In reading some agri-
cultural works, to qualify himself for his duties, he had observed that it would be
of advantage to study chemistry: he accordingly attended the lectures given in
the university of Edinburgh by Dr Cullen, who, although surprised that one so
young should have formed this resolution, had soon reason to admire his pupil's
laudable curiosity and good sense, and liberally afforded him every encourage-
ment in his power. To chemistry he added the study of certain collateral
branches of science; so that, when he entered upon his farm, he was not only
able to keep up with his more aged and experienced neighbours, but adopted a
number of improvements, suggested by scientific knowledge and native good
Bense, which were speedily found to be of a most profitable nature. Among his
improvements was the introduction of the small two*horse plough, which, since ,
then, has so completely banished the lumbering engine formerly drawn by a |
string of cattle. Nor did the necessary business of his farm preclude all advance- ,
raent in knowledge. He still prosecuted his studies with great eagerness, and |
soon contrived to amass an immense stock of information upon almost all sub- i
jects. j
His first attempts in literature appeared in the shape of Essays on Planting, ,
in Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine for 1771. In 1777, having previously removed |
to a large farm in Aberdeenshire, he published these essays in a separate volume.
In 1776, appeared his Essay on Chimneys, in which the -principle after wards '
acted on in the patent Bath stove was first explained In the same year with his i
volume on Planting, appeared various pamphlets connected with rural economy,
all of which were more or less calculated to gratify the increasing desire of his
countrymen for scientific knowledge upon such familiar subjects. The feme of
these works procured him a very extensive acquaintance with persons of emi- .
nence, who wished to profit by the remarks of so able a practical farmer ; and i
in 1780, the University of Aberdeen acknowledged his merit by conferring upon
him the degree of LL.D.
Anderson had been married in 1768; and a desire of educating a very nu-
merous family, together with certain considerations as to the enjoyment of literary
society, induced him, in 1783, to remove to Edinburgh, leaving the management I
of his farm to persons properly qualified. A tract which he had written on the I
subject of the Fisheries, though not printed, attracted the attention of the go-
vernment, and he was requested in 1784 to undertake a tour of the western coast >
of Scotland, for the purpose of obtaining information on this important subject
He readily acquiesced, and performed the task to the high satisfaction of his i
employers, who, however, never offered him any remuneration. The result of I
his labours appeared in 1785, as " An Account of the present state of the He- i
brides and Western Coasts of Scotland ; being the substance of a report to the i
Lords of tli 9 Treasury." ,
Passing over some minor works of Dr Anderjon, we must make honourable
Digitized by
Google
JAMES ANDERSON. 57
mention of a literary and scientific miscellany which he commenced in 1791,
under the title of the Bee. This work was published in weekly numbers at six-
pence, and, by its delightful intermixture of useful information with lighter
matters of die belles lettres, was eminently calculated for the improvement of the
young. It was occasionally embellished with portraits, views, and draughts of
scientific objects — in, it is true, a very homely style, but still not much inferior
to the taste of the age, and certainly fitted to give the work an increased merit
in the eyes of its juvenile purchasers. The work ran from the 22nd of December,
1790, to the 21st of January, 1794, when it was at length reluctantly abandoned,
as the ingenious editor informs us, not on account of any failure in its circula-
tion, for that was considerable enough to yield a large apparent profit, but be-
cause such a large proportion of the subscribers were remiss in their payments as
to induce an absolute loss to the conductor. The cessation of such a meritorious
little publication was the more to be regretted, as Anderson had only been able,
towards its close, to bring the assistance of his numerous and distant correspon-
dents into full play. The numbers published form eighteen volumes duodecimo,
and throughout the whole of that space, we believe there does not occur one line
which can be considered reprehensible for its moral effect
Among other papers in the Bee was a series of Essays on the Political Progress
of Britain. Though only written in what would now be considered a liberal
strain, they appeared in the eyes of the sheriff as calculated to have an injurious
tendency at that inflamed period ; and the learned Doctor was accordingly sum-
moned to give up the name of the author. This Anderson refused, from peculiar
notions as to literary secrecy ; he desired to he himself considered as the author.
After a second and a third application, he still refused ; and when the printers
were sent for, and similarly interrogated, he charged them in the face of the
magistrates, to preserve his secret All this was the more singular, as his own
principles were known to be eminently loyal Respect for his talents and character
induced the magistrates to let the matter drop. The real author, a worthless
person named Callender, being afterwards about to quit his country for America,
waited upon the authorities, and insinuated that the papers were written by lord
Gardenstone, a man to whom he owed many obligations. Immediately on hear-
ing of this infamous conduct, Anderson came forward, and refuted the charge by
avowing Callander himself to be the real author. The whole of this affair reflects
great credit upon the character of Dr Anderson.
About the year 1797, this ingenious person removed with his family to Lon-
don, where he undertook various works connected with his favourite study of
agriculture. For several years be wrote the articles on this subject in the Monthly
Review ; and from 1799 to 1802, he conducted a separate miscellany under the
title of " Recreations in Agriculture," which was only discontinued on account, oi
some obstructions incident to such a mode of publication. From the last men-
tioned date, he devoted himself almost entirely to the relaxation which advanced
years and severe studies had rendered necessary, and particularly to the cultiva-
tion of his garden, which became a miniature of all his past labours. In 1801,
he married a second wife, who survived him. He died on the 15th of October,
1808, at the age of sixty-nine.
In his younger days, Dr Anderson was remarkably handsome in his person, cf
middle stature, and robust make. Extremely moderate in his living, the country
exercise animated his cheek with the glow of health ; but the overstrained exer-
tion of his mental powers afterwards shook his constitution, and hurried him into
old age, He was a man of independent mind ; and in the relative duties of
husband and father, exhibited a prudential care, mixed with affection, which
commanded the admiration of his friends. 0£Dr Anderson's abilities, his works
Digitized by VjOOQ IC -
58 JOHN ANDERSON, M.A.
exhibit so many proofs that they may be appealed to with perfect confidence.
Although a voluminous writer, there is no subject connected with his favourite
pursuit, on which he has not thrown new light But his knowledge was not con-
fined to one science. He exhibited, to give only one instance, very considerable
powers of research, when in 1773, he published, in the first edition of the Ency-
clopedia Britannica, an article under the head Monsoon. In this he clearly
predicted the result of captain Cook's first voyage ; namely, that there did not
exist, nor ever would be found, any continent or large island in the southern
hemisphere except New Holland alone ; and this was completely verified on
captain Cook's return seven months afterwards. Upon the whole, though the
name of Dr Anderson is associated with no scientific or literary triumphs of great
splendour, his exertions, by their eminent and uniform usefulness, have given him
very considerable claims to respect A minute specification of his works is to be
found in the Scots Magazine for 1 809.
ANDERSON, John, M.A. an eminent Presbyterian clergyman of last century,
grandfather of Professor Anderson, the subject of the next article. Of his early
history very little is known, except that he received a university education, and took
his degree in arts. He was afterwards preceptor to the great John Duke of Argyle,
and he mentions in his letters upon the Overtures concerning Kirk Sessions and
Presbyteries, that he had resided in Edinburgh for twenty-five years in early life.
He seems also to have taught a school, and he is upbraided by " Curat Calder."
with having been " an old pedantic dominie, teaching ha c dot a." It was not, how-
ever, till after his settlement as minister of Dumbarton, that he became known as
author. The earliest of his productions that has been discovered is entitled, " A
Dialogue between a Curat and a Countreyman concerning the English Service,
or Common-Prayer Book of England," which was printed in quarto at Glasgow,
about 1710. The question relative to the form of prayer used in Scotland, im-
mediately after the Reformation, was at this time keenly canvassed by the Scottish
Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and the clergy of the former persuasion had very
shortly before introduced the liturgy into their church service. (Carstares' Stats
Papers.) Mr, afterwards Bishop, Sage endeavoured in his "Fundamental Charter
of Presbytery Examined," to show that the English liturgy had been used in Scot-
land for at least seven years after the establishment of the Protestant religion. In
this he was opposed by Mr Anderson, who adduced many arguments to prove that
it was not the English liturgy that is spoken of by the Scottish historians, but that
used by the English church at Geneva. Soon afterwards Anderson published a
"Second Dialogue," (dated 1711) in which, says he, "there is hardly any thing
of importance which is not said in the very words of the writers of the other
side," and in which South, Beveridge, Hammond, and Burnet are the Curates
whose sentiments are opposed. " A Letter from a Countreyman to a Curat,"
followed the dialogues, and received several answers, of which we shall only
mention one, written by Robert Calder, an Episcopalian clergyman, the friend
of Dr Archibald Pitcairn, and printed in his " Miscellany Numbers relat-
ing to the controversies about the Book of Common Prayer," &c folio, 1713. .
To this attack Anderson replied in a pamphlet entitled " Curat Calder Whipt"
He soon after published " A Sermon preached in the church of Ayr at the open-
ing of the Synod, on Tuesday the first of April, 1712," printed at the desire o1
the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, (quarto, price sixpence,) and in 1714, the work
by which he is best known appeared It has for its title, " A Defence of the
Church Government, Faith, Worship, and Spirit of the Presbyterians, in answer
to a book entitled an Apology for Mr Thomas Rhind," &c. 4to, and is dedicated
to Archibald Earl of Islay. About the beginning of the year 1717, Anderson
informs us, " the people of Glasgow were pleased to move that I should be called
to be one of the ministers of that place," (Letter to Stewart of Pardovan, p. 1.)
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ANDERSON, M.A.
59
but the proceedings relative to this transaction strikingly illustrate die truth of
Wodrow's remark in a letter to Dr Cotton Mather. 1 " We are biting and de-
vouring one another/' says the venerable historian, " and like to be consumed one
of another. In our neighbouring city of Glasgow, where since the Revolution,
unity and harmony, and consequently vital religion flourished, now heat, and
strife, and every evil work abound. The university is split and broken. The
magistrates and ministers are at present in no good terms." The same author
gives us some additional information relative to Mr Anderson's case in a letter
to the Rev. James Hart, one of the ministers of Edinburgh in 1 7 1 8. 2 " Our Synod
last week," says he, "had the Presbytery of Glasgow's reference of Mr Anderson's
call before them ; the ministers' reasons of dissent and the town's answers were
read, and the ministers' answers to them read, viva voce. The advice given at
the close of the last Synod when the house was thin {to fall from Mr Anderson)
was disliked by the Synod now when full, and it was agreed not to be recorded.
The vote came to be stated, — concur with the call, and transmit it to the Presby-
tery of Dumbarton, or refer to the Assembly-; and it carried, — concur 63, refer
41 ; whereon the ministers and four or five of the Presbytery appealed to the
Assembly, and gave in a complaint verbally against Mr Anderson, which the
Synod obliged them to bring in in write, signed, to-morrow." Mr Anderson was,
however, at length settled in Glasgow in 1720, although it appears from
M'Ure's History that the North-Wast Church to which he was appointed was not
founded till 1731, nor finished for " a year or two thereafter." It would be
difficult to explain Anderson's motives in coming to Glasgow,— -his colleagues
were disgusted at a letter addressed by him to Walter Stewart of Pardovan, which
was published in 1717, and contained some severe remarks upon them, and he
says, in a strain of bitter irony, " I confess I was under a great temptation of
being eager for a settlement in Glasgow, for what minister would not be fond of
a lesser stipend and a double charge I" 8 Nor was he more fortunate in his first
appearance in his new parish, for he had, according to M'Ure, a kind of conse-
cration sermon, which disgusted " the stricter, or more bigotted sort of the peo-
ple." In the same year in which he was appointed one of the ministers of
Glasgow, " Mr Anderson's Letters upon the Overtures concerning Kirk Sessions
and Presbyteries" appeared in 12mo. Of this topic he says, " I must needs con-
less that it is the most melancholy subject I ever wrote upon. There was plea-
sure as well as duty in contending with our prelatic adversaries ; but alas !
In civil war, to lose or gain 'b the same,
To gain 's no glory, and to lose a shame."
These letters extend to six, and although now little known, as they refer merely
to an ephemeral subject, contain some curious historical information, and not a
little satire. Mr Anderson did not long survive his call to Glasgow, — the date
of his death has not been ascertained, but his successor was appointed in 1723,
His controversial writings are full of valuable historical information, and show
him to have been thoroughly versed in theological literature, but it cannot be too
•much regretted that he so far indulged in intemperate language. We have not
alluded to some of his smaller pamphlets, which refer merely to subjects of a
temporary or local nature.
Upon the family tomb-stone, erected by the will of Professor Anderson, over the
grave of his grandfather, upon the front of the North-West Church, Glasgow,
was inscribed the following memorial of Mr Anderson : — " Near this place ly
the remains of the Rev. John Anderson, who was preceptor to the famous John
Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, and minister of the gospel in Dumbarton in the
I Wodrow's History, new edition, vol. 1. p. xxv.
8 History, vol. 1. p. xxii. * Letters on the Overtures. P. 67*
Digitized by
Google
60 JOHN ANDERSON, FJLS.
beginning of the eighteenth century, and in this church in the year 17 30. He was
the author of 'The Defence of the Chuvoh-government, Faith, Worship, and Spirit
of the Pre sb y t erians,' andefaeveralotherecdea i ag ri ealandpoKthailteacti. As a pious
minister and an eloquent preacher, a defender of civil and religious liberty, and a
man of wit and learning, he was much esteemed ; he lived in the reign of Charles
II., James II., William III., Anne, and George I. Such times, and such a man,
forget not, reader, while thy ■country, liberty, and religion are dear to thee."
ANDERSON, John, F. R. S. professor of natural philosophy in the university
of Glasgow, and founder of the eminently useful institution, bearing his name, iu
that city, was born in the parish of Roseneath in Dumbartonshire, in the year
1726. He was the eldest son of the reverend James Anderson, minister of
Roseneath, who was, in his turn, the eldest son of the reverend John Anderson,
preceptor to John Duke of. Argyle, afterwards minister of the gospel at Dum-
barton, and whose memoir is given in the preceding article. The subject
of this memoir, having the misfortune to lose his father in early life, was
educated by his aunt Mrs Turner, widow of one of the ministers of the High
church of Stirling. While residing at this town, where he received the rudi-
ments of learning, he appeared as an officer in the burgher corps raised in
February, 1746, to defend it against the forces of the young Chevalier. His
conduct on this occasion was worthy of his distinguished ancestor, from whose
example he appears to have derived that attachment to the principles of civil
and religious liberty* which marked his character through life. The carabine and
other arms which he carried on the walls of Stirling are preserved in the museum
connected with his institution at Glasgow. He received the more advanced part of
his education at the college of Glasgow, where, in 1756, he was appointed to be
professor of oriental languages, being then in die thirtieth year of his age.
It was not in this sphere that Mr Anderson was destined to shine with great-
est lustre. His mind had a decided bent towards the exact sciences, and to the
illustration of the arts with which they are connected. His translation, there-
fore, to the chair of natural philosophy, which took place in 1760, was an even;
highly agreeable to ham, and also most fortunate for the world. While he took
an early opportunity after this event, to fol&l an important private duty, by re-
paying his aunt for the expenses of his education, he entered upon the business
of his class with an enthusiastic ardour of application, which we may safely pro-
nounce to have been without example in any Scottish university. Not contented
with the ordinary duty of delivering a course of lectures — though he performed
that duty in a manner alone sufficient to obtain distinction — he was indefatig-
able in studying and exemplifying the application of science to mechanical
practice ; visiting, for this purpose, the workshops of artisans in the town, and
receiving, in return for the scientific doctrine which he had to communicate, a foil
equivalent of experimental knowledge. The most-estimable characteristic of profes-
sor Anderson, was a liberal and diffusive benevolence in regard to the instruction
of his race. Under the inspiration of this feeling, which was in that age more
rare, and therefore more meritorious than it is at present, ha instituted, in ad- «
dition tu his usual class, which was strictly mathematical, one for the working
classes, and others tvhusu pursuits did not enable them to conform to the pre-
scribed routine of academical study, illustrating his precepts by experiments, so
as to render it in the highest degree attractive. He continued to teach thia
ontUoga c/a**, as he called it, twice erery week, during the session, to the end
of his hTc ; and k would not bo easy to estimate the aggregate of good which he
(bus rendered to his fellow-creatures. As an instance of the liberal good sense
by which he was governed in his eminently useful scheme, it is related that, a
mechanic bavins; complained to his assistant, that he had scarcely timet after leaving
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ANDERSON, F.R.S.
61
his work, to change his dress before coming to the class, and having suggested
the propriety of the operatives being allowed to attend without such change,
Mr Anderson, being apprized of the wish so expressed, at once acceded to it
His was a mind too strongly bent on mere usefulness, to regard empty form.
Vet, as a lecturer, he is allowed to have himself exhibited a surpassing elegance
of manner. His style was easy and graceful, his command of language unlimit-
ed, and the skill and success with which his manifold experiments were perform-
ed, could not be surpassed. He excited the interest, and attracted the attention
of his pupils, by the numerous and appropriate anecdotes with which he illustrat-
ed and enlivened his lectures. Enthusiastic in his profession, his whole ambi-
tion and happiness consisted in making himself useful to mankind, by the dis-
semination of useful knowledge ; and nothing afforded him purer pleasure than
hearing that any of his pupils had distinguished themselves in the world. The
only distinct work which he published in connection with his favourite science,
was a valuable one, entitled, " Institutes of Physics," which appeared in 1786,
and went through five editions during the next ten years.
At the commencement of those political changes in Prance, which ended in
such unhappy results, Mr Anderson, as might have been predicated from his ar-
dently liberal and enlightened character, was among those who sympathized
most warmly with the proceedings of the emancipated people. Previous to that
period, he had prosecuted a taste for the military art, and invented a species of
gun, the recoil of which was stopped by the condensation of common air, within
the body of the carriage. Having in vain endeavoured te attract the attention
of the British government to this invention, he went to Paris, in 1791, carrying
with him a model, which he presented to the national Convention. The govern-
ing party in France at onco perceived the benefit which would be derived from
tins invention, and ordered Mr Anderson's model to be hung up in their hall,
with the following inscription over it — "The out of Senates to Liberty."
Whilst he was in France, he got a six-pounder made from his model, with which
be made numerous experiments in the neighbourhood of Paris, at which the
famous Paul Jones, amongst others, was present; and who gave his decided
approbation of the gun, as likely to prove highly useful in landing troops from
boats, or firing from the round tops or poops of ships of war. Mr Anderson, at
this period, took a keen interest in the transactions which passed before his
eyes. He was present when Louis XVI. was brought back from Varennes;
and on the 14th of July, on the top of the altar of liberty, and in the presence
of half a million of Frenchmen, he sang Te Dewn with the bishop of Paris,
when the king took the oath to the Constitution, amen being said to the cere*
mony by the discharge of five hundred pieces of artillery. As the Emperor of
Germany had drawn a military cordon around the frontiers of France, to prevent
the introduction of French newspapers into Germany, he suggested the expe-
dient of making small balloons of paper, varnished with boiled oil, and filled
with inflammable air, to which newspapers and manifestoes might be tied. This
• was accordingly practised, and when the wind was favourable for Germany, they
were sent off, and descending in that country, were, with their appendages, pick-
ed up by the people. They carried a small flag or streamer, of which the fol-
lowing is a translation : —
O'er hills and dales, and lines of hostile troops, I float majestic,
Bearing the laws of God and Nature to oppressed men,
And bidding them with arms their rights maintain. "
Mr. Anderson died, January 13th, 1796, in the 70th year of his age, and the 41st
year of his professorship, directing, by his will, dated May 7th, 1795, that the whole
Digitized by
Google ^
02 EGBERT ANDERSON, M.D. .
of his efiecti, of every kind, should be devoted to the establishment of an educational
in st it in ion in Glasgow, to be denominated Anderson* $ University, for the use of tha
unacoderoieal cluises; so that, even while he was consigned to the silent dust, ha
might it ill, by means of his honourably acquired wealth, prove of service to those
whom he had benefited so much, during his own life, by personal exertion. His
will was carried into effect on the Oth of June following, by the magistrates granting
a charter of incorporation to the proposed institution. According to the design ol
the founder, there were to ha four colleges — for arts, medicine, law, and theology
— besides an initiatory school. Each college was to consist of nine professors, the
senior professor being the president or dean. As the funds, however, were inadequate
to the plan, it was at first commenced with only a single course of lectures on
natural philosophy and chemistry, by Dr Thomas Garnett, well known for his
numerous scientific and medical works, and also for bis ** Tour through the Highlands
mid part of the Western Isles of Scotland." This course was attended for the first
year by nearly & thousand persons of both sexes. In 1798, a professor of mathe-
matics and geography was appointed. The splendid apparatus and library of the
founder, which were valued at L.3000, added greatly to the advantages of the infant
institution. In 1730, Dr Garnett, being appointed professor in the Royal Institution
■t London, was succeeded by the eminent Dr Birbeck, who, in addition to the
branches taught by his predecessor, introduced a familiar system of philosophical and
mechanical information to five hundred operative mechanics, free of all expense, thus
giving rise to Mechanics 1 Institutions. The Andersonian institution was placed, by
the will of the founder, under the inspection and control of the Lord Provost, and
many other honourable persons, as ordinary visitors, and under the more immediate
Mtperintendence of eighty -one trustees, who are elected by ballot, and remain in
office for life. Since the first establishment of the University, as it may very pro-
perly be called, it bas gradually been extended, nearer and nearer to the original
design of the founder. There are now [1852] fifteen professors, who deliver lec-
tures on surgery, institutes of medicine, chemistry, practical chemistry, midwifery,
practice of medicine, anatomy, uvnteria medica, pharmacy, and dietetics, medical
jurisprudence and police, mathematics, natural philosophy, botany, logic, geography,
modern languages, English literature, drawing, and painting, Ac. The institution
now poster es handsome and commodious buildings, which belong to the corporation,
and, among other additions to its means of cultivating and illustrating science, is an
extensive museum of natural history and antiquities. Anderson's University must
be considered a wonderful example of the amount of good which one man, of no very
great material resources, may do for bis kind. The private fortune of one professor
in the original college of Glasgow has here been found sufficient to produce a new
fount of learning, not unworthy to rank with the old, and of very great practical
utility to the public.
A posthumous wtnk of professor Anderson, entitled, "Observations on Roman
Antiquities between the Forth and Clyde," appeared in 1804.
ANDERSON, Roefrt, M.D. the biographer of Smollett and Johnson, was born
on 7th of January, I7o0* the son of a feuar in the rural village of Carnwatb in
Lanarkshire. He received the earlier part of bis education in his native place, and
in the adjacent village of Libber ton ; was subsequently placed under the tuition of
Mr Robert Thomson, master of the grammar-school of Lanark ; and finally studied
in the university of Edinburgh, where he commenced attendance upon the divinity
class, with the view of becoming a clergyman. He took the degree of M.D. at St
Andrews in 1778. In his early years, when pursuing his studies at Carnwatb, he
could find but one congenial mind in the whole of that rural district ; this was an
unfortunate youth, named James Graeme, the son of a neighbour, who, after exhibit-
Digitized by
Google
EOBERT ANDERSON, M.B.
63
tng considerable powers as a poet, died in bis twenty-second year, and whose
reiiques were afterwards included by Dr Anderson, more perhaps through the influ-
ence of friendship, than deliberate taste, in his edition of the British poets. Dr
Anderson first entered into practice, as surgeon to the Dispensary of Bamborough
Castle in Northumberland ; he afterwards removed to Alnwick, where he married
Miss Gray, daughter of Mr John Gray, a relation of the noble family of that name*
The declining state of bis wife's health, which rendered a change of air necessary,
induced him, in 1784, to remove to Edinburgh, where he ever afterwards resided.
He bad here the misfortune to lose his amiable partner, who sank under a consump-
tion, leaving him with three infant daughters. Dr Anderson having secured a small
independence, practised no more after this period, but engaged in such literary
avocations as he felt to be agreeable to his taste, and became the centre of an agree-
able coterie, in which the talents of many a youth of genius were for the first time
brought into notice. About the year 1793, he began to prepare his edition of the
British Poets, which forms thirteen volumes, large octavo, and appeared between
the years 1795 and 1807. To the works of each poet is prefixed a biographical
memoir by Dr Anderson. In 1703, he married for his second wife, Miss Dale,
daughter of Mr David Dale, schoolmaster in East Lothian. A collection of the
works of Smollett, by Dr Anderson, with a memoir prefixed, has gone through eight
editions. To the last edition is affixed a highly characteristic likeness of the editor.
The memoir has been published repeatedly in a distinct shape, and is a very respect-
able production. Dr Anderson also published a " Life of Dr Samuel Johnson, with
critical observations on his works," which has passed through several editions. For
several years before the end of the eighteenth century, Dr Anderson was editor of
(be Edinburgh Magazine, a rival of the Scots Magazine, more varied and lively in
its details, and which afforded him an opportunity of bringing forward the produc-
tions of his young friends. This work commenced in the year 1784, and at the end
of 1803, was incorporated with the Scots Magazine : it was much indebted to its
proprietor, James Sibbald, editor of the Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, to Lord Hailes,
snd other eminent literary characters. Among the publications which Dr Anderson
gave to the world, must be included his edition of " The Works of John Moore,
BID., with Memoirs of his Life and Writings ;" Edinburgh, 1820, 7 vols. 8?o; and
an edition of the poems of Robert Blair; Edinburgh, 1820, 12mo. The great inci-
dent of Dr Anderson's literary life was bis connection with the commencement
of the career of Thomas Campbell. When Campbell first visited Edinburgh in
1707, being then in his twentieth year, he gained the friendship of Dr Anderson,
who, on being shown a copy of elegiac verses, written by him two years before,
when an obscure tutor in Mull, predicted his great success as a poet. It was
through Dr Anderson, in 1798, that Campbell was introduced to the circle of his
distinguished literary associates in Edinburgh ; and he it was who encouraged him
by his friendly advice, and assisted him by his critical acumen, in the publication of
his celebrated poem, "the Pleasures of Hope," for the high character of which he
had, previously to its appearance, pledged his word to the public. In acknow-
ledgment of bis friendship, the grateful poet dedicated bis work to Dr Anderson.
During the later years of his life, this venerable author, though he indulged as
much as ever in literary society, gave no work to the public.
As a literary critic, Dr Anderson was distinguished by a warm sensibility to the
beauties of poetry, and by extreme candour. His character as a man was marked
by perfect probity in all bis dealings, and unshaken constancy in friendship. His
manner was lively and bustling ; and from his long-continued acquaintance with the
literary world, he possessed an unrivalled fund of that species of gossip and anecdote
which gives so much pleasure in Boswell's Life of Johnson.
Digitized by
Google
£4 WALTER ANDERSON, D.D.
Dr Andersen died of dropsy in the ebest, February 20, 1880, in hie eighty-first
year.
ANDERSON, Walter, D.D. The ora of this gentleman's birth w unknown ;
he died at an advanced age, July, 1800, after having been minister of the parish
of Chirnside for fifty years. He m a remarkable specimen of that class of au-
thors, who, without the least power of entertaining or in sfa r urt mg their fellow-
creatures, yet persist in writing and puldishing books, which nobody ever reads,
and still, like the man erased by the lottery, expect that the next, and the next
and the next will be attended with success* Perhaps Anderson's cacoetke* tori-
bendi received its first impulse from the following ludicrous craimstance. His
parish comprehending the house of Ninewells, he was often entertained there,
in company with the brother of the proprietor— the celebrated David Hume
The conversation having turned one day on the successes of Mr Hume as an au-
thor, Anderson said, " Mr David, I dare say other people might write booki
too ; but you clever fellows have token up all the good subjects* When I look
about me, I cannot find one unoccupied. " Hume, who liked a joke upon an un-
suspecting clergyman, said, " what would you think, Mr Anderson, of a history
of Croesus, king of Lydia ? — that has never yet been written." Mr Anderson
was delighted with the idea, and, in short, "upon that hint he wrote." In 1755
was published, " The History of Crcesus, king of Lydia, in four parts; contain-
ing observations on the ancient notion of destiny, or dreams, on the origin and
credit of the oracles, and the principles upon which their oracles were defended
against any attack." What is perhaps the best part of the jest, the work was
honoured with the following serio-burlesque notice in. the Edinburgh. Review,
then just started by Hume, Smith, Carlyle, and other wits — the article being
written, we have no doubt, by die very man who incited the unhappy author te
his task: —
" Crtrsus king of Lydia is a prince whom we never expected to have met
with, as the hero of a serious history. Mankind seem at last to feel the neces-
sity of contracting rather than enlarging that period of history, which ought to
be the object of their study and attention. If this sentiment be just, how unfor-
tunate and ill-timed is our author's attempt to recall from oblivion the name and
adventures of a monarch of such distant and dubious fame. He himself seems
aware of this objection to his work ; and it is but just to hear what he can plead
in his own defence. • The enthusiastic principles of ages long past, and the
artificial devices then used to work upon the passions of men, may appear to
some a subject of history not enough interesting in these times. But if the
most essential part of knowledge, derived from history, be that of mankind, it
surely cannot well be learned, without thoroughly considering the various senti-
ments and opinions embraced by them in different ages of the world. Our views
of human nature must be partial and confined, if they be only directed to some
of its late and present appearances. By carrying our thoughts back into ancient
times, we may see reason for abating much of the amazement or dislike which
is apt to arise in our minds, when we read the religious or political violences
marked out in modern history. 9
" If the reader shall sustain this apology for the subject, (which we by no
means require him to do,) we can assure him that he will find our author neither
destitute of skill in composition, nor a stranger to propriety and neatness of lan-
guage. He has treated his subjects with abundance of erudition, and by his man-
ner of relating it, renders an old tale somewhat tolerable.
"We cannot, however, imagine our readers to be so much interested in the
. Lydian monarch, as to make it necessary for us to enter into any detail of his
actions. We approve of our author's choice of Herodotus rather than Xeno-
Digitized by
Google
phoi) ; * * but at the same time, our author's history has domed, from He-
rodVois, an air and character which will appear uncouth to a modern reader ;
oracles, dreams, prodigies, miraculous interpositions of the gods, and no less
miraculous instances of credulity and folly among men, are the objects perpetu-
ally before him. The rage of reading novels, which has spread so wonderfully
orer Britain, may perhaps hare accustomed the public ear to such improbabili-
ties. To all true lovers of the marvellous, we therefore recommend our author's
hero. His adventures, though related in a better style, are as far removed from
truth, and very near as much connected with instruction, as most of those which
of late years have been so diligently studied by a great part of the nation.
"We conclude this article with an admonition to the author. In any future
performance, we advise him either to venture into the region of pure fiction, or
to confine himself within the precincts of real history. In the former, by his
talents for composition, he may become an agreeable writer ; in the latter his
industry may render him an instructive one."
It happens that the work thus noticed in the second number of the Edinburgh
Review, was also the subject of a critique in the second number of the Critical
Review, which had then been just started in London by Smollett The article
in the latter work bears such evident marks of the pen of the distinguished
editor, and refers to such an extraordinary work, that we shall make no apology
for the following extracts.
After remarking that the volume has been chiefly compiled from the episodes
of Herodotus, that it exhibits a miserable flatness of style, and that all the facts
scattered throughout its two hundred and thirty-five pages might have" been
related in three or four, the critic proceeds to say — " we are apt to believe that
this is the first essay of some young historian, who has been more intent upon
forming his style and displaying his learning, than careful in digesting his plan,
and combining his materials ; the subject is too meagre to afford nourishment to
the fancy or understanding ; and one might as well attempt to build a first-rate
man of war from the wreck of a fishing-boat, as to compose a regular history
from such a scanty parcel of detached observations. The compiler has been
aware of this deficiency, and has filled up his blank paper with unnecessary ar-
gument, and a legion of eternal truths, by way of illustration. What could be
more unnecessary, for example, than a detail of reasons for doubting the divinity
•r cUemoniacism of the ancient oracles ? who believes, at this time of day, that
they were either inspired by the deity, or influenced by the devil? What can
be more superfluous than a minute commentary and investigation of the absurdi-
ties in the plea of the priestess, when she was taxed with falsehood and equivo-
cation ? But we beg the author's pardon ; he wrote for readers that dwell
beyond the Tweed, who have not yet renounced all commerce with those familiar
spirits, which are so totally discarded from this part of the island. There is
still a race of soothsayers in the Highlands, derived, if we may believe some
curious antiquaries, from the Druids and Bards, that were set apart for the wor-
ship of Apollo. The author of the history now before us, may, for ought we
know, be one of these venerable seers ; though we rather take him to be a
Presbyterian teacher, who has been used to expound apothegms that need no
explanation."
The history of Croesus king of Lydia, one of the most curious productions
recognised in the history of literary mania, is now extremely rare— not by any
means from the absorbing appreciation of the public, but rather, apparently, from
the very limited extent of its first circulation.
The worthy author, though perhaps daunted a little by the reception of his
first attempt, in time recovered the full tone of his literary ambition ; and he
Digitized by VjOOQ IC _
06 WALTER ANDEHSON, ML
next attempted a work of much larger compass, which appeared in 17fi0
in two quarto volumes, under the title of ** r J he History of France during
the reigns of Francis IL and Charles IX., to which is prefixed a Review
of the General History of the Monarchy from its origin to that period,"
'Ilis success of this work was much like that of its predecessor; yet in 1775
the author published a continuation in one volunte, under the title, ** The
History of Franco, from the commencement of the reign of Henry Ilk,
and the rise of the Catholic League, to the peace of Worms and the estab-
lishment of the famous edict of Nantes in the reign of Henry IV. T > In 1783,
appeared two further volumes, embracing the history from the commenee-
luent of the reign of Louis XI II. to the general peace of Munsler. But these
continuous efforts were not drawn forth by the encouragement of the public :
they were solely owing to the desperate cacoethe* of the worthy writer, which
would take no hint from the world— no refusal from fame. It is said that he
was solely enabled to support the expense of his unrequited labour by a set of
houses belonging to himself in Dunse, (too appropriate locality I) one of which
was sold for every successive quarto, till at last something like a street of good
habitable tenements in that thriving town was converted into A row of unreadable
rolumes in his library*. "Br Anderson," says the Gentleman's Magazine, " displays
none of the essential qualities of historic writing, no research into the secret
springs of action, no discrimination of character, and no industry in accumulating
and examining authorities, Even as a compiler he is guided only by one set
of materials which he found in the French writers, and may therefore be con-
sulted by the English reader, as a collection of their opinions, while be is highly
censurable in not having recourse to original papers and documents respecting
the affaire of his own country. His style is uniformly tame, and defaced by col-
loquial barbarisms."
In a literary history of this deplorable character, it is gratifying to find that
one effort was at length judged worthy of some praise* This was a work subse-
quent to the above, entitled, " The Philosophy of Ancient Greece investigated, in
its origin and progress, to the eras of its greatest celebrity, in the Ionian, Italic,
and Athenian schools, with remarks on the delineated system of their founders."
His principle in this work, according to the authority just quoted, appears to
have been to supply the deficiencies in Mr Stanley's work, and to give place to
remarks upon the meaning employed by the most eminent Grecian philosophers*
in support of their physical, theological, and moral systems ; and to give a fuller
and mure connected display of their theories and arguments, and to relieve the
frigidity of (heir bare details by interspersing observations." In this work he
displays much learning, and is in general both accurate and perspicuous, although
he is still deficient in the graces of style. .Perhaps it would have been more
successful had it not appeared at the same time with Dr Enfield** excellent abridg-
ment of I trucker's History of Philosophy.
One of the last attempts of Dr Anderson was a pamphlet against the principles
of the French H evolution. This being not only written in his usual heavy style,
but adverse to the popular sentiments, met with so little sale, that it could scarcely
be said to have been ever published. I km ever, the doctor was not discouraged ;
adopting rather the maxim, " cantm Qudentiar itoj* ho wrote a ponderous addi-
tion or appendix to the work, which he brought with him to fcd in burgh, in order
to put it to the press. Calling first upon his. friend Principal Houerison, he re-
lated the whole design, which, as might be expected, elicited the mirthful surprise
ef the rcnerable historian. " 1 lenity," said I)r Hobertson, " this is the maddest
of all your schemes — what ] a small pamphlet is found heavy, and you propose
to lighten it by making it ten times heavier! Never was such madness heard
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM ANNAND.— ALEXANDER ARBDTHNOT. 67
of ?" " Why, why," answered Dr Anderson, " did you never see a kite raised by
boys?" " I have," answered the principal " Then, you must have remarked
that, when you try to rube the kite by itself, there is no getting it up : hut only
add a long string of papers to its tail, and up it goes like a laverock ! " lite
reverend principal was completely overcome by this argument, which scarcely
left him breath to reply , so heartily did he laugh at the ingenuity of the resolute
author. However, we believe, he eventually dissuaded Dr Anderson from his
design.
ANNAND, William, an episcopal divine of the reign of Charles 11,, was the son
of William Annand T minister of Ayr, where he was barn in 1(333. His father,
having read the service-book at filasgow in 16" 37, was attacked by the women of
that place on the streets, and with some difficulty escaped a tragical fate. He
was obliged soon after to fly from Scotland, on account of his adherence to the
royal cause. Young Auuand became, in lb'51, a student at University College,
Oxford, and soon gave token of his being inspired with the same predilections
as his father. Though placed under a presbyterian tutor, he took every oppor-
tunity of hearing the episcopal divines, who preached clandestinely in and around
Oxford. In 1656, being then bachelor of arts, he received hnly orders from the
hands of Dr Thomas Fulwar, bishop of Ardiort or Kerry in Ireland, and was
appointed preacher at Weston on the Green, near Becister in Oxfordshire. In
this situation, and another to which he was preferred in Be<lfor6Uhire, he distin-
guished himself by his preaching. Immediately after the Restoration, he pub-
lished two treatises in favour of the episcopal style of worship, which seem to
have procured him high patronage, as he was now appointed chaplain to the
earl of Middleton, the king 1 ! commissioner to the Scottish Estate*. Returning
to Scotland with this nobleman, he became minister successively of the Tolbooth
and of the Iron Chiurches. As an episcopal clergyman, he must liave no doubt
been exceedingly unpopular in his own country ; but there can be no doubt thai
both his ministrations and his writings were highly creditable to him, the latter
displaying much learning, In 1670, the king appointed him to be dean of
Edinburgh, and in 16 8 5 he began to act as processor of divinity at 8t Andrews*
On the 30th of June, 1085, be attended the Karl of Argyle, by order of the
government, at his execution, and in his prayer on the scanold, had the liberality
to lament the fall of that nobleman " as one of the pillars of the church,"
an expression which is said to have given great offence to his superiors.
After a life of piety and goodness, he died in 1630, lamenting with his latest
breath, and with tears in hij eyes, the overthrow of that church which he had
exerted himself so much to defend and establish. He said, he never had thought
to outlive the church of Scotland, but he hoped that others would live to see it
restored.
ARBUTHNOT, Alexander, an eminent divine of the reign of James VI., son
of the laird of Arbutbnot, was born in the year 1538. Having studied languages
and philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, and civil law under the famous
Cujacius at Bourges in France, he took ecclesiastical orders, and became in his
own country a zealous supporter of the He formation. The period of his entrance
into life was 1563, when queen Mary waa in possession of the kingdom, His
eminent abilities and acquirements pointed him out, young' as he was, as a Idl-
ing man in the church, and accordingly he took a prominent part in several
general assemblies. In that of 156*3, he was appointed by his brethren to ex-
amine a work entitled " The Fall of the Homan Church," which was objected to
because it styled the king the head of the church The result of his deb Dera-
tions was an order to Bassandyne, the printer, not to print any more books till
lie had expunged this passage, and also taken away a lewd song which he had
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
68 JOHN ARBUTHNOT, M.D.
published at the end of an edition of the Psalms. The assembly also ordered
that henceforth no book should be published till licensed by their commission.
" This," it has been remarked, " the reformed clergy, who owed their emancipa-
tion to the right of private judgment, with strange inconsistency obstructed the
progress of free inquiry by taking upon themselves the regulation of the press.**
Arbuthnot was soon after appointed minister of the parishes of Arbuthnot and
Logie-Buchan, and in 1 569 he became Principal of the University of Aberdeen.
He was a member of the General Assembly held at St Andrews in 1572, in
which strenuous opposition was made to a scheme of church-government, called
the " Book of Policy," which was invented by certain statesmen, at the head of
whom was the Regent Morton, to restore the old titles of the church, and by
means of titular incumbents, retain all the temporalities among themselves. In
the General Assemblies held at Edinburgh in 1573 and 1577, Arbuthnot was
chosen Moderator ; and he appears to have been constantly employed, on the
part of the church, in the commission for conducting the troublesome and tedious
contest with the Regency concerning the plan of ecclesiastical government to be
adopted in Scotland. This commission, under the name of the Congregation, at
length absorbed so much power, that the Assembly was left little to do but to
approve its resolutions. The part which Arbuthnot took in these affairs gave
offence to James VI., and the offence was increased by the publication of Buch-
anan's History, of which Arbuthnot was the editor. It was therefore resolved to
restrain him by an oppressive act of arbitrary power ; and a royal order was
issued, forbidding him to absent himself from his college at Aberdeen. The
clergy, who saw that the design of this order was to deprive them of the benefit
of Arbuthnot'8 services, remonstrated: the king, however, remained inflexible,
and the clergy submitted. This persecution probably affected Arbuthnot's health
and spirits; for, the next year, 1583, he fell into a gradual decline and died.
Arbuthnot appears to have possessed much good sense and moderation, and to
have been well qualified for public business. His knowledge was various and
extensive ; he was a patron of learning ; and at the same time that he was active
in promoting the interests of the Reformed church, he contributed to the revival
of a taste for literature in Scotland. The only prose production which he has
left, is a learned and elegant Latin work, entitled " Orationes de Origine et
Dignitate Juris," — [Orations on the Origin and Dignity of the Law,] which was
printed in 4to at Edinburgh in 1572. For some specimens of vernacular
poetry, supposed to be his composition, we may refer to Irving's Lives of the
Scottish Poets, and M'Crie's Life of Andrew Melville. His character has received
a lasting eulogy, in the shape of an epitaph, from the pen of his friend Melville.
See J)eliti<B Poetarum Scotorum, ii. p. 120.
ARBUTHNOT, John. M. D. one of the constellation of wits in the reign of
queen Anne, and the most learned man of the whole body, was the son of a
Scottish clergyman, who bore a near relationship to the noble family of this
name and title. He was born at Arbuthnot in Kincardineshire, soon after the
Restoration, and received his education at the University of Aberdeen, where he
took the degree of M.D. The father of Arbuthnot was one of those members of
the church of Scotland, who, not being able to comply with the presbyterian sys-
tem introduced at the Revolution, were obliged to resign their charges. He
retired to a small estate, which he possessed by inheritance ; while his sons, find-
ing their prospects blighted in their own country, were under the necessity of
going abroad to seek their fortune. John carried his jacobitism, his talents, and
his knowledge of physic, to London, where he at first subsisted as a teacher of
mathematics. His first literary effort bore a reference to this science : it was an
14 Examination of Dr Woodward's Account of the Deluge," a work which had
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ABBUTHNOT, M.D.
been published in Hi 95, and which t in Dr Arbuthnofs estimation, was irrecon-*
citable with just philosophical reasoning upon mathematical principles. This
publication, which appeared in L6U7, laid the foundation of the author's literary
reputation, ^vliu:h not long after received a large and deserved increase by Iris
" Essay on the usefulness of Mathematical Learning," The favour which he ac-
quired by these publications, as well as by hit agreeable manner* and learned
conversation, by degrees introduced him into practice as a physician. Being at
Epsom, when Prince treorge of Denmark was suddenly taken ill, he was called
in, and had the good fortune to effect a cuj^e. *l"he Prince immediately became
bis patron, and, in 1701), he was appointed fourth physician in ordinary to the
queen, (prince Ueorga's royal consort,) in which situation he continued till her
majesty's death in 1714, In 1704, I>r Arbuthnot had been elected a member
of the Royal Society, in consequence of bis communicating to that body a most
ingenious paper on the equality of the numbers of the sexes; a fact which he
proved by tables of births from lliifl, and from winch bo deduced the reasonable
inference that polygamy is a violation of the laws of nature* In 171 0, be was
elected a member of the Hoyol College of Physicians.
This was the happy period af Dr Arbuthnut's lile.. 'lory principles and tory
ministers were now triumphant ; be was in enjoyment of a high reputation, of a
lucrative practice, and a most honourable preferment. He also lived ia constant
intercourse with a set of literary men, almost the greatest who had ever flourished
in England, and all of whom were of his own way of thinking in regard to poli-
tics. This circle included Pope, Swift, (iray, and Prior. In 1714, he engaged
with Pope and Swift, in a design to write a satire on the abuse of hum .in learn-
ing in every branch, which was to have been executed in the humorous manner
of Cervantes, the original inventor of this species of satire, under the history oi
feigned adventures. But the prosecution of this design was prevented by the
queen's death, which lost Arbuthnot his situation, and proved a death-blow to all
the political friends of the associated wit*. In the dejection which befell them,
i Ley never went farther titan an essay, chiefly written by Arbuthnot, under the
title of the First Book, of the Bletnoirs of Martimit Scriblerus, *■ Polite letters,"
says War burton iu his edition of Pope's works, " never lost more than in the de-
feat of this scheme ; in the execution of which, each of this illustrious triumvirate
would have found exercise for lus own particular talents ; besides constant em*
ployiuent for those which they all had in common. Dr Arbuthnot was skilled
in every tiling which related to science ; >lr Tope was a master in the line arts ;
and I>r Swift excelled in a knowledge of the world. Wit they had in equal
measure ; and this so large, that no age perhaps ever produced three men to
whom Nature had more bounti fully bestowed it, or Art had brought it to lugher
l*erfection." We are told by the same writer that the Travels of Gulliver and
the Memoirs of a Parish Clerk were at first intended as a branch of the Memoirs
of Seriblerus, Iu opposition to what Worburton says of the design, we may pre-
sent what Johnson says of the execution. " These memoirs, " says the doctor, in
his life of Popcj " extend only to the first part of a work projected in concert
by Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot Their purpose was to censure the abuses of
learning by a fictitious life of an infatuated scholar. They were dispersed : the
design never was completed : and War burton laments its miscarriage, as an event
rery disastrous to polite letters. If the whole may be estimated by this specimen,
which seems to be the production of Arbuthnot. with a few touches by Pope, the
want of more h ill not be much lamented ; for the follies which the writer ridi-
cules are so little practised, that they ore not known; nor can the satire be un-
derstood but by the learned. He raises phantoms of absurdity, and then drives
them away. He cures diseases that were never felt* For this reason, this joint
Digitized by LfOOQ IC
70 JOHN ARBUTHNOT, MJ).
production of three great writers has never attained any notice from mankind."
With the opinion of Dr Johnson we entirely coincide, so far as the Scriblerai is
concerned ; but we think that Arbuthnot was unfortunate in the part of the de
sign which he selected, and that, in satirising more palpable follies, he might
have been more successful The success of Swift, in ridiculing mankind in gene-
ral in his Gulliver is surely a sufficient reason, if no other existed, for the lamen-
tation of Warburton.
At the death of the Queen, when it pleased the new government to change all
the attendants of the court, the immortal suffered with the mortal ; Arbuthnot,
displaced from his apartments at St James's, took a house in Dover-street, remark-
ing philosophically to Swift, that he " hoped still to be able to keep a little habita-
tion warm in town." His circumstances were never so prosperous or agreeable
after this period. With the world at large, success makes merit — and the want
of it the reverse— and it is perhaps impossible for human nature to think so high-
ly of a man who has been improperly deprived of some external mark of distinc-
tion and honour, as of him who wears it without so much desert. The wit, left
to his own resources, and with a rising family to support, seems to have now lived
in some little embarrassment.
In 1717, Arbuthnot* along with Pope, gave assistance to Gay, in a farce enti-
tled, " Three Hours after Marriage/ 9 which, strange to my, was condemned the first
night. A rival wit wrote upon this subject :—
44 Such were the wags who boldly did adventure
To dub a farce by tripartite adventure ;
But let them share their dividend of praise,
And wear their own fool's cap instead of bays."
The failure is easily explained, and the explanation partly involves Arbuth-
not's character as a literary wit The satire of the principal character was too
confined, too extravagant, and too unintelligible to a general auditory to meat
with success on the stage. It would thus appear that Arbuthnot, like many other
similar men, had too refined a style of wit in his writings^— not that broad, open,
palpable humour which flashes at once upon the conceptions of all men, but
something too rich and rare to be generally appreciated. His learning led his
mind to objects not generally understood or known ; and, therefore, when he
wrote, he was apt to excite the sympathies of only a very limited class.
In 1739, Dr Arbuthnot found it necessary for his health to indulge in a visit
to Bath. He was accompanied on this occasion by a brother, who was a banker
at Paris, and whose extraordinary character called forth the following striking
description from Pope: " The spirit of philanthropy, so long dead to oar world,
seems revived in him : he is a philosopher all fire ; so warmly, nay so wildly,
in the right, that he forces all others about him to be so too, and draws them
into his own vortex. He is a star that looks as if it were all on fire, but is all
benignity, all gentle and beneficial influence. If there be other men in the
world that would serve a friend, yet he is the only one, I believe, that could make
even an enemy serve a friend." About this time, the Doctor thus described him-
self in a letter to Swift : " As for your humble servant, with a great stone in hit
right kidney, and a family of men and women to provide for, he is as cheerful
in pttblio affairs as ever."
Arbuthnot, in 1793, was chosen second censor of the Royal College of Physi-
cians; in 1797, he was made an Elect, and had the honour to pronounce the Har-
veian oration for the year. In 1797, also appeared his great and learned work
entitled, " Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights, and Measures, explained and exem-
plified in several Dissertations." He continued to practice physic with good re-
putation, and diverted his leisure hours by writing papers of wit and humour.
Digitized by
Google
1
JOHN ARBUTHNOT, M.D. 71
Among these n»ay be mentioned one, which appeared in 1731, in ihe shape of
mi epitaph upon the inftunous colonel Charter is, nnd which we shall present in
this place as perhaps the most favourable specimen of Dr Arbuthnot's peculiar
vein of talent &*— *
■* ili:m continueth to rot the body of Franc! v Chatteris, who, with an in fieri
ble cunatancy, and inimitable uniformity of life, persisted, in spite of age and in-
firmities, in the practice of every human rice; excepting prodigality and hypo-
crisy; his insatiable avarice exempted him from the first, his mat<:hlett impudence
from the second. Nor was he more singular in the underrating privity of his
manners, than successful in accumulating wealth; for, without trade or profession,
without trust of public money, and without bribe- worthy service, he acquired, or
more properly created, a ministerial estate. He wnsthe only person of his time,
who could cheat with the mask of honesty, retain his primeval meanness when
possessed often thousand a year, and, having daily deserved the gibbet for what
he did, was at lost condemned to it for what he could not do.— -O hi indignant
reader! Think not his life useless to mankind! Providence connived at his e sev-
erable designs, to give to after ages a conspicuous proof and example of how small
estimation is exorbitant wealth in the sight of (iod, by his bestowing it on the
most unworthy of all mortals. **'
Arbuthnot, about this time, wrote a very entertaining paper on the " Alterca-
tions or Scolding of the Ancients. 11 In 1732, he contributed towards detecting
and punishing the scandalous frauds and abuses that had been carried on under
the specious name of " The Giari table Corporation/ 1 In the some year, he pub-
lished his " Treatise on the Nature and Choice of Aliments, 1 ' which was followed,
in 1733, by his u Essay on the Effects of Air on Human Bodies.' 1 He is thought
to have been led to these subjects by the consideration of his own case ; an asth-
ma, which, gradually increasing with his years, became at length desperate and
incurable. A little before his last publication, he had met with a severe domestic
affliction in the loss of his gon T Charles, " whose life," he says in a letter to
Swift, M if it had so pleased God, he would willingly have redeemed with his
own." He now retired, in a state of great debility to Hampstead; from whence,
in a letter to Pope, July 17th, 1734, he gives the following philosophic, and we
may add, touching 1 , account of his condition :
" 1 have little doubt of your concern for me, nor of that of the lady you men-
tion. I hare nothing to repay my friends with at present, but prayers and good
wishes. 1 have the satisfaction to find that 1 am as officiously served by my
friends, as he that has thousands to leave in legacies ; besides the assurance of
their sincerity* iJod Almighty had made my distress as easy as a thing of that
nature can be. 1 have found some relief, at least sometimes, from the air of this
place. My nights are bad, but many poor creatures hove worse.
I Thin paraxon of wickedness, who was a native of Scotland, is thus described by Pops,
hut. we believe, as in the epitaph Itself, with much i-xaggcrnltun, " Francis Churl oris, a
man infamou* for all vices. When Liu was an ensign in the army, he was drummed out
Bf the regiment for a client: he was banished Brussels, and turned out of Ghent on the
same Account. After a hundred tricks at the gaming-tables, he took to lending of money,
at exorbitant interest, and en great penalties} accumulating premium, Interest, and cnpiUil
Into a new capital, and seizing to a minute when the payment became due-, in a word, by
a constant attention to thu ticea, wants, find follies of mankind, he acquired an immense
fortune, * * * * He was twice condemned for rapes ami par-
doned, but the iMtllme not without imprisonment in New pate, and largo confiscations. He
died in Scotland, in 17S1, aged C£. The populace, at his funeral, raised a great riot, almost
tore the body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogb, &c, inw the grave along with it." We
may add, that the mourners lutd to defend themselves from the mob with their swords. See
Traditions of Edinburgh. One remarkable feature of Charteris* character \s not gone rally
known: though n bully and a coward, he had his fighting da} 9; he would suffer himself to
!■»■ Licked for refusing a challeuge one day, anil the next would accept another and kill fui
■
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN ABBOTHNOT, M.D.
"As for you, my good friend, I think, since our first acquaintance, there hare
not been any of those little suspicions or jealousies that often affect the sincerest
friendships ; I am sure not on my side. I must be so sincere as to own, that,
though I could not help valuing you for those talents which the world prizes,
yet they were not the foundation of my friendship ; they were quite of another
sort ; nor shall I at present offend you by enumerating them ; and I make it my
last request, that you will continue that noble disdain and abhorrence of rice,
which you seem naturally endowed with, but still with a due regard to your own
safety ; and study more to reform than to chastise, though the one cannot be
effected without the other.
" Lord Bathurst I hare always honoured, for every good quality that a person
of his rank ought to have : pray, give my respects and kindest wishes to the fami-
ly. My venison stomach is gone, but I have those about me, and often with me,
who will be very glad of his present If it is left at any house, it will be trans-
mitted safe to me.
" A recovery in my case, and at my age, is impossible ; the kindest wish of my
friends is euthanasia. Living or dying, I shall always be, — Yours, &c."
In a letter about the same time to Swift, he says he came to Hampstead, not for
life, but for ease. That he had gained in a slight degree from riding ; but he was
" not in circumstances to live an idle country life ;" and he expected a return of
the disorder in full force on his return in winter to London. He adds, "lam
at present in the case of a man that was almost in harbour, but was again blown
back to sea ; who has a reasonable hope of going to a good place, and an
absolute certainty of leaving a very bad one. Not that I have any particulai
disgust at the world, for I have as great comfort in my own family, and from
the kindness of my friends, as any man ; but the world in the main displeaseth
me ; and I have too true a presentiment of calamities that are like to befall my
country. However, if I should have the happiness to see you before I die, you
will find that I enjoy the comforts of life with my usual cheerfulness. * * *
My family give you their love and service. The great loss I sustained in one of
them gave me my first shock ; and the trouble I have with the rest, to bring them
to a good temper, to bear the loss of a father who loves them, and whom they
love, is really a most sensible affliction to roe. I am afraid, my dear friend, we
shall never see one another more in this world. I shall, to the last moment, pre-
serve my love and esteem for you, being well assured that you will never leave
the paths of virtue and honour for all that is in the world. This world is not
worth the least deviation from that way," &c In such a strain did this truly
good man discourse of his own certain and immediate death, which accordingly
took place, February, 1735, in his house, Cork-street, Burlington Gardens, to
which he had returned from Hampstead at the approach of winter.
Arbuthnot's character was given by his friend Swift in one dash : " He has
more wit than we all have, and more humanity than wit" " Arbuthnot," says
Dr Johnson in his life of Pope, " was a man of great comprehension, skil-
ful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature,
an4 able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination ;
a scholar with great brilliancy of wit ; a wit, who, in the crowd of life, retained
and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal." Lord Orrery has thus entered
more minutely into his character. " Although he was justly celebrated for wit
and learning, there was an excellence in his character more amiable than all his
other qualifications, I mean the excellence of his heart He has shown himself
equal to any of his contemporaries in wit and vivacity, and he was superior to
most men in acts of humanity and benevolence. His very sarcasms are the sa-
tirical strokes of good nature : they are like slaps in the face, given in jest, the
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ARBUTHNOT, ALU.
73
effect* of which may rake blushes* but no blackness will appear after the blow.
tie laughs as jovially as an attendant upon Bacchus, but continues ai sober and
considerate as a disciple of Socrates. He is seldom serious except in his attacks
upon vice ; and then his spirit rises with a manly strength, and a noble indig-
nation. His epitaph upon Charter is (allowing one small alteration, the word
permitted, instead of connived at,) is a complete and a masterly composition in
i la kind. No man exceeded him in Lhe moral duties of life ; a merit still more
to bis honour, as the ambitious powers of wit and genius are seldom submissive
enough to con fine themselves within the limitations of morality. In his letter
to Mr Pope, written as it were upon his death-bed, he discovers such a noble
fortitude of mind at the approach of his dissolution, as could be inspired only by
a clear conscience, and the calm retrospect of an uninterrupted series of virtue,
"lli*,- Dean [Swift] laments the loss of hhu with a pathetic sincerity* ' The deaths
of Mr Gay and Doctor/ says he to Mr Pope, l have been terrible wounds near
my heart Their living would have been a great comfort to me, although I
should never have seen them : like a sum of money in a bank, from which 1
should receive at least annual interest, as I do from you, and have done from
Lord Bolingbroke.' n
The wit, to which Swift's was only allowed the second place, was accompanied
by a. guileless heart, and the most perfect simplicity of character. It is related
of its possessor, that he used to write a humorous account of almost every remarka-
ble event which fell under his observation, in a folio book, which lay in his par-
lour ; but so careless was he about his writings after he was done with them, that,
while he was writing- towards one end of this work, he would permit his children
to tear out the leaves from the other, for their paper kites. This carelessness
has prevented many of the works of Dr Arbuthnot from being preserved, and no
correct list has ever been given. A publication in two volumes, 8vo, at Glasgow.
in 175 1, professing to be his l * Miscellaneous Works," was said by his son to con-
sist chiefly of the compositions of other people. He was so much in the habit of
writing occasional pieces anonymously, that many fugitive articles were erro-
neously attributed to him : he was at first supposed to be the author of Robinson
Crusoe, lie scarcely ever spoke of his writings, or seemed to take the least in-
terest in them* He was also somewhat indolent. Swift said of him, that he
seemed at first sight to have no fault, but that ho could not walk. In addition
to this, he hnd too much simplicity and worth to profit by the expedients of Life ;
in Swift's words,
* He knew his art, but nut his tradt"
Swift also must be considered as insinuating a certain levity of feeling, with all
his goodness, when he says, in anticipation of his own death,
* Poor Pops wf U grieve a month, and Gay
A week, and Arbuthnnt a day] 31
though the habitual cheerfulness of his disposition may have been all that the poet
had in his eye. The only other work Ascertained as ArbuthnoCs, besides those
mentioned, is the celebrated History of John Bull, a political allegory, which has
had many imitations, but no equal* He also attempted poetry, though without
a ay particular effort A philosophical poem of his composition, entitled,
" rNfiei IEATTON," [Know Yourself] is printed in Dodsley's Miscellanies,
Ho left a son, George, who was an executor in Fope^s will, and who died in the
enjoyment of a lucrative situation in the Exchequer office towards the end of
the last century; and a daughter, Anne, who was honoured with a legacy by
Pope, His second son, Charles, who died before himself, had been educated in
Christ church college, Oxford, and entered into holy orders.
L &
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
74 JOHN ARMSTRONG, M.D.
ARMSTRONG, John, M.D. author of the well-known poem, entitled, " The
Art of Preserving Health," was horn, about 1709, in the parish of Castleton,
Roxburghshire, where his father and brother were successively ministers. He
might almost be styled a poet by right of birth-place, for the parish of Castleton
is simply the region of Liddesdale, so renowned for its heroic lays, the
records of deeds performed by the border rievers, among whom the family
of the poet bore a distinguished rank. The rude and predatory character
of this district had, however, passed away before the commencement of the
eighteenth century; and young Armstrong, though his lullabies were no doubt
those fine old ballads which have since been published by Sir Walter Scott,
seems to have drawn from them but little of his inspiration. It was as yet
the fashion to look upon legendary verses as only fit for nurses and children ;
and nothing was thought worthy of the term poetry, unless it were presented in
trim artificial language, after the manner of some distinguished classic writer.
It is therefore by no means surprising, that Armstrong, though born and cradled
in a land full of beautiful traditionary poetry, looked upon it all, after he had
become an educated man, as only Doric trash, and found his Tempo in the bower,
of Twickenham instead of the lonely heaths of Liddesdale.
The only allusion to his native scene is to be found in the following passage
of "The Art of Preserving Health;'* a warm and elegant apostrophe, and no
doubt testifying his affectionate recollection of
— ^— i the echool-boy spot,
We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot,—
but still deficient in characteristic painting, and unpardonably so in its total si-
lence as to the romantic history of the country, and its spirit-stirring ballads.
But if the breathless chase o'er hill and dale
Exceed your strength, a sport of less fatigue,
Not less delightml, the prolific stream
Affords. The chrystal rivulet that o'er
A stony channel rolls its rapid surge,
Swarms with the silver fry. Such, through the bounds
Of pastoral Stafford, runs the brawling Trent ;
Such Eden, sprung from Cumbrian mountains, such
The Esk o'erhung with woods : and such the stream,
On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air,
Liddal, till now, except in Doric lays
Tuned to her murmurs by her love-sick swains,
Unknown in song : though not a purer stream,
Through woods more flowery, more romantic groves,
Rolls toward the western main. Hail, sacred flood !
May still thy hospitable swains be blest
In rural innocence ; thy mountains still
Teem with the fleecy race j thy tuneful woods
For ever flourish ; and thy vales look gay
With painted meadows, and the golden grain !
Oft with thy blooming sons, when life was new,
Sportive and petulant, and charmed with toys,
In thy transparent eddies have I laved:
Oft traced with patient steps thy fairy banks,
With the well-imitated fly to hook
The eager trout, and with the slender line
And yielding rod solicit to the shore
The struggling panting prey ; while vernal clouds —
And tepid gales obscured the ruffled pool,
And from the deeps called forth the wanton swarms.
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ARMSTRONG, M.D. 75
How different would have been the allusions of a Leyden or a Scott to the
land of Jock o' the Side and Hobbie Noble !
Armstrong was educated for the medical profession at the university of Edin-
burgh, under the elder Monro. In 1739, he took his degrees as M. D. with
much reputation, the subject of his treatise being Tabes Purulenta. He had
ere this period addicted himself to the composition of verses. We are inform-
ed, that, to relieve the tedium of a winter spent in " a wild romantic country *
—probably Liddesdale— he wrote what he intended for an imitation of Shak-
speare, but which turned out to resemble rather the poem of " Winter, 1 ' then
just published by Tnomson. The bard of the Seasons, hearing of this composi-
tion, which so strangely and so accidentally resembled his own, procured a sight
of it by means of a mutual friend, and, being much pleased with it, brought it
under the notice of Mr David Mallet, Mr Aaron Hill, and Dr Young, all of
whom joined with him in thinking it a work of genius. Mallet even requested
the consent of the author to its publication, and undertook that duty, though
he afterwards gave up the design.
Armstrong was probably led by this flattering circumstance to try his fortune
in London, where his countrymen Thomson and Mallet had already gained
literary distinction. In 1735, he is found publishing, in that capital, a humor-
ous attack upon empirics, in the manner of Lucian, entitled, " An Essay for
abridging the study of physic, to which is added, A Dialogue betwixt Hygeia,
Mercury, and Pluto, relating to the Practice of Physic, as it is managed by a
certain illustrious Society ; and an Epistle from Usbeck the Persian to Joshua
Ward, Eso." The essay, besides its sarcastic remarks on quacks and quackery,
contains many allusions to the neglect of medical education among the practis-
ing apothecaries ; but the author had exhausted his wit in it, and the dialogue
and epistle are consequently flat and insipid. In 1737, he published a serious
professional piece, styled, " A Synopsis of the History and Cure of the Venereal
Disease,' 9 8vo., inscribed in an ingenious dedication to Dr Alexander Stuart, as
to " a person who had an indisputable right to judge severely of the perform-
ance presented to him." He probably designed the work as an introduction to
practice in this branch of the medical profession ; but it was unfortunately followed
by his poem, entitled, "The (Economy of Love," which, though said to have been
designed as merely a burlesque upon certain didactic writers, was justly condemn-
ed for its warm and alluring pictures, and its tendency to inflame the passions
of youth. It appears by one of the M Cases of Literary Property," that Andrew
Millar, the bookseller, paid fifty pounds for the copy-right of this poem ; a sum
ill-gained, for the work greatly diminished the reputation of the author. After
at had passed through many editions, he published one, in 1768, in which
the youthful luxuriances that had given offence to better minds were carefully
pruned.
In 1744, Dr Armstrong made some amends for this indiscretion, by publish-
ing " The Art of Preserving Health," a didactic poem in blank verse, extending
through four books, each of which contains a particular branch of the subject
This very meritorious work raised his reputation to a height which his subsequen*
efforts scarcely sustained. It is written in a taste which would not now be con
sidered very pure, or elegant ; but yet, when the subject and the age are con-
sidered, there is amazingly little to be condemned. Dr Warton has justly
remarked the refined terms in which the poet, at the end of his third book, ha*
described an English plague of the fifteenth century, entitled, " The Sweating
Sickness." " There is a classical correctness and closeness of style in this poem,"
says Dr Warton, " that are truly admirable, and the subject is raised and adorned
by numberless poetical images." Dr Mackenzie, in his History of Health, be-
Digitized by
Google
y$ JOHN ARMSTRONG, M.D.
stowed similar praises on llue poem, which was indeed every where read and
admired
In 1741 » Armstrong solicited the [Citron rise of Dr Birch, tn be appointed
physician to the fleet, then about to §aii for the West Indies ; but he does not
seem to hare obtained the object of his desire. In 1 74ti, when established in
reputation by his Art of Preserving Health, lie was appointed one of the physi*
cm n* to the hospital for lame and sick soldiers behind Buckingham house. In
1751, he published his poem on "Benevolence,** in folio, a production which
seeins to have come from the heart, and contains sentiments which could have
been expressed with equal ardour only by one who felt them. His " Taste, an
epifltle to a young critic, 1 * 1753, 4to, is a lively and ipirited imiLation of Pope T
and the first production in wliich Armstrong began to view men and manners
with a splenetic eye.
His next work was less meritorious. It wai entitled *' Sketches or Essays on
various subjects," and appeared under the fictitious name of Lancelot Temple,
Esq. The critical examinators of Dr Armstrong's merits allow to this work the
credit of exhibiting much humour and knowledge of the world* but find it de-
formed by a perpetual flow of affectation, a struggle to say smart things, and,
above all, a disgusting re petition of vulgar oaths and exclamations — forms of ex-
pression to which the poet, it seems, was also much addicted in conversation. In
some of these sketches, Armstrong is said to have had assistance from the noto-
rious John Wilkes, with whom he lived in habits of intimacy ; but it is certain
that the contributions of this gentleman cannot have been great, as the work is
much inferior to the literary style of the demagogue of Aylesbury, who, what-
ever might be bis moral tailings, is allowed to have had a chaste classical taste,
and a pure rein of humour.
Armstrong hud sufficient professional interest in I7l>0, tr» obtain the ap-
pointment of physician to the army in Germany. From that country he wrote
"Day, a poem, 17 addressed as an Epistle to John Wilkes, Esq. This lively
piece, which professes to embody an account of all the proper indulgences, moral
and physical, of twenty-four hours, was, it is said, published in an imperfect
shape, by some clandestine editor. It was never added to the collected works ol
Ur Armstrong, till Dr Anderson admitted it into his edition of the British Poet*.
After the peace of 1703, Dr Armstrong returned to London, and resumed his
practice, but with no eager desire of increasing the moderate competency he now
enjoyed* Ho continued after this period rather to amuse than to exert himself
in literary productions, chiefly spending his time in the society of men of wit
and taste like himself. In 1771, he made a tour into France and Italy, in
company with the celebrated Fuseli, who survived him for nearly fifty years, and
always spoke highly of Dr Armstrong's amiable character. In Italy he took a
tender farewell of his friend Smollett, to whom he was much attached, and who
died soon after* On returning home, he published an account of his travels,
under the name of Lancelot Temple.
'I he latter years of Dr Ami&trung's life were embittered by one of those quar-
rels which, arising between persons formerly niuch attached, are at once the most
envenomed, and the most productive of uneasiness to the parties. In his poem
of Day, he had asked, among other things,
11 What cniiy scribbler reigns the present wit ?*'
which the poet Churchill very properly took to himself, and resented in the fol-
lowing passage iit his poem of M The Journey j"
Lei tkem with Armstrong, taking leave of sense,
Rend musty I natures on Benevolence ;
Digitized by
Google
JOHJtf ARMSTRONG, M.D. 77
Or con the pages of his gaping Day, 1
Where all his farmer fame was thrown away.
Where all but ban mi labour was forgot,
And iho Tain stiffness of a lettered Scot ;
Let th&m wJih Armstrong pass the term of light,
But not one hour of darkness ; when the night
Suspends this mortal coil, whan memory wakes,
When for our past misdoings conscience takes
A deep riftttyft when by roflectkn led
She draws his curtains and looks comfort dead,
Let every mu*e be gone ; in rain he turns,
And tries to pray for sleep ; an iEtna burns,
A more than JEtna in his coward breast,
And guilt, with vengeance armed, forbids to rest ;
Though soft as plumuga from young Zephyr's wiu^
H \a couch seems hard, and no relief can bring ;
ingratitude hath planted daggers then",
No good man can deserve, no brave man bear.
We have 110 hesitation in saying that this severe satire was not justified either by
the offence which called it forth, or by iho circumstances on which it wis found-
ed. Wilkes, the associate of Churchill, had lent money to Armstrong on some
occasion of peculiar distress. When the attacks of Wilkes upon Sent hind Led to
animosities between the two friends, it was not to be expected that the recollec-
tion of a former obligation was necessarily to tie up Iho natural feelings of Dr
Armstrong, and induce him to submit rather to the certain charge of meanness of
spirit, than the possible imputation of ingratitude* Neither could Wilkes have fairly
expected that lite natural course of the quarrel was to be stayed by such a sub-
mission on the part of ills former friend. It would have been equally mean for
the obliged party to have tendered, and for the obliging party to have accepted such
a submission. There can be no doubt, therefore, that Dr Armstrong, in giving
way to resentment against Wilkes, was chargeable, properly, with no blame ex-
cept that of giving way to resentment; and if it Is to bo supposed, from the
character of the poet in respect of irritability, that the resentment would have
taken place whether there had been a debt of kindness standing undischarged
between the parties or not. we cannot really see how this contingent circumstance
can enhance his offence*
There is unfortunately too great reason to suppose, that, if the obligation tend-
ed to increase the blame of either party, it was that of Wilkes, who, from almost
incontestable evidence, appears to have made a most ungenerous use of the ad*
vantage he had acquired over his former friend. Not only must he bear a por-
tion of tike guilt of Churchill's satire, which could have only been written as a
transcript of his feelings, and with his sanction, but he stands almost certainly
guilty of a still more direct and scurrilous attack upon Dr Armstrong, which ap-
peared in a much more insidious form. This was a series of articles in the well
known i'ublic Advertiser, commencing with a letter signed Diat t which appeared
to proceed from an enemy of the patriot, but, in the opinion of Dr Armstrong,
was written by the patriot himself:
" He [Wilkes]," says this writer, ** always took more delight in exposing his
friends than in hurting his enemies. 1 am assured that a very worthy and in-
genious friend of this impostor trusted him with a jeu <T esprit of a poem, incor-
rect indeed, but which bore every mark of a true, though ungovemed genius.
This poem, rough as it was, he carried to A. Miliar, Lite bookseller in the Strand,
1 This poem was full of large hiatus supplied by asterisks.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
78 JOHN ARMSTRONG, M.D.
and published it in his friend's name, without his knowledge. This is a fact,
Mr Printer; therefore, I think, Air W. should let alone Scotch writers."
Occasion was taken in the next day's publication to give a refutation of this
pretended attack, in the following terms :
" Your correspondent, Sir, is pleased to appeal to a dead bookseller, I appeal
to the living author, now in London. He desired the poem might be published:
it was written for the public eye : he directed the bookseller to call on Mr W.
for the copy. The bookseller produced his credentials, under the author's own
hand, upon which Mr W. gave him the manuscript of the poem- It was after-
wards published in the kindest way for the author's reputation, as a Fragment.
I believe he will not choose to restore the passages, which were omitted in the
first edition of 1760. When he does, the kindness, and perhaps the judgment
of the editor will appear, I am told, in a very strong and favourable light The
poem was not published till the bookseller had received a second positive order
for that purpose, from the author, after several objections to the publication had
been transmitted to him in Germany, and amendments made by himself. It was
a favourite child not without merit, although scarcely so much as the fond father
imagined. Mr Churchill wrote the four following lines on that poem, which
were never forgiven. They are in the Journey.
4 Or con the pages of his gaping Day,
Where all his former fame was thrown away,
Where all but barren labour was forgot,
And the vain stiffness of a lettered Scot.* Troth. **
A week after, a letter signed "Nox," in the same tone with that signed
44 Tbdth," appeared in the Public Advertiser. It is impossible to doubt that Mr
Wilkes was at the bottom of the whole plot, and either wrote the letters himself
or employed his friend Churchill to do so. 8
* This more particularly appears from the report of a conversation which took place on
the 7th of April, between Dr Armstrong and Mr Wilkes, which appears to have been
noted down on the same day by the latter, and was published in the Gentleman** Maga-
zine, for 1792, thirteen years after the death of Dr Armstrong.
The incensed poet entered his former friend's lodgings, in Prince's Court, and, without
the least ceremonial or compliment, commenced the following dialogue — which, as a curious
piece of literary history, we hare given entire :«—
Dr Armstrong. Did you, Sir, write the letters in the Public Advertiser?
Mr Wilkes. What letters do you mean, Doctor? There are many letters almost even'
day in the Public Advertiser.
Dr A. Sir, 1 mean the three letters about me, and Day, Day, Sir.
Mr W, You may ask the printer, Mr Woodfall. He has my orders to name me
whenever he thinks it proper, as the author of every thing I write in his paper.
Dr. A. I believe you wrote all those letters.
Mr. W. What all three, Doctor ? 1 am very roughly treated in one of them, in the first
signed Dies.
Dr. A. 1 believe you wrote that to bring on the controversy. I am almost sure of it.
Mr. W. 1 hope you are truly informed in other things. I know better than to abuee
myself in that manner, and I pity the author of such wretched stuff.
Dr A. Did you write the other letters, Sir ?
Mr W. The proper person to inquire of, is Mr Woodfall. I will not answer interroga-
tories: My time would pass in a strange manner, if I was to answer every question which
anygentleman chose to put to me about anonymous letters.
2>r A. Whoever has abused me, Sir, is a villain ; and your endeavours, Sir, to set Scot-
land and England together are very bad.
Mr W. The Scots have done that thoroughly, Doctor, by their conduct here, particularly
by their own nationality and the outrages of Lord Bute to so many English families,
whenever you think prope? to call upon me in particular as a gentleman, you will find me
most ready to answer the call.
Dr A. D— n Lord Bute! It had been better for Scotland he had never been born.
He has done us infinite mischief.
Mr W. And us too; but 1 suppose we are not met for a dish of politics?
Dr A. No ; but 1 wish there had been no union. I am sure England is the gainer by iL
Mr W. I will not make an essay on the advantages and disadvantages of the union.
Digitized by
Google
JOHN ARMSTRONG, M.D. 7&
Armstrong died at his house in Russel Street, Covent Garden, September 7,
1779, in consequence of an accidental contusion in his thigh, received while
getting into a carriage. He was found, to the surprise of the world, to have
saved the sum of £ 2000 out of his moderate income, which for many years had
consisted of nothing more than his half-pay.
Dr Armstrong was much beloved and respected by his friends for his gentle
and amiable dispositions, as well as his extensive knowledge and abilities ; but
a kind of morbid sensibility preyed upon his temper, and a languid listlessness
too frequently interrupted his intellectual efforts. With Thomson's Castle of
Dr A. \ hate politics ; but I have been ill used by you, Dr Wilkes, on the occasion.
Mr W . On the contrary, Doctor, I was the injured friend
Dr A. I thought you for many years the most amiable friend in the world, and loved
your company the most; but you distinguished yourself by grossly abusing my country
men in the North Briton — although 1 never read much of that paper.
Mr W. You passed your time, I am satisfied, much better. Who told you. Doctor, what
particular numbers I wrote ? It is droll, but the bitterest of these papers, which was attri -
buted to me, was a description of Scotland, firet printed in the last century, on Charles I.'s
return from thence in 1683. Wore you ever, Doctor, personally attacked by me ? Were
you not, although a Scotsman, at the very time of the North Briton, complimented by me,
in conjunction with Churchill, in the best thing I wrote, the mock * Dedication to Morti-
mer?
Dr A, To be praised along with such a writer, I think an abuse.
Mr W. The world thinks far otherwise of that wonderful genius Churchill; but you,
Doctor, have sacrificed private friendship at the altar of politics. After many years of mu-
tual intercourse of good offices, you broke every tie of friendship with me on no pretence
but a suspicion, for you did not ask for proof, of my having abused your country, that coun-
try 1 have for years together heard you inveigh against, in the bitterest terms, for nastineu
awl naiionnlity.
Dr A, 1 only did it in joke, Sir ; you did it with bitterness ; but it was my country.
Mr W. No man has abused England so much as Shakspeare, or France so much as
Voltaire; yet they remain the favourites of two great nations, conscious of their own supe-
riority. Were you, Doctor, attacked by me in any one instance? Was not the most
friendly correspondence carried on with you the whole time, till you broke it off by a letter,
in 1763, in which you declared to me, that you could not with honour associate with one
who had distinguished himself by abusing your country, and that you remained with all due
sincerity? I remember that was the strange phrase.
Dr A. You never answered that letter, Sir.
* Mr W. What answer could I give you, Doctor? You had put a period to the inter-
course between us. 1 still continued to our common friends to speak of you in terms of
respect, while you were grossly abusing me. You said to Boswell, Millar, and others, •« 1
hope there is a hell, that Wilkes may lie in it."
Dr A. In a passion I might say so. People do not often speak their minds in a passion.
Mr W. 1 thought they generally did, Doctor 1
Dr A. 1 was thoroughly provoked, although I still acknowledge my great pecuniary
I obligations to you — although, 1 dare say, 1 would have got the money elsewhere.
Mr W. 1 was always happy to render you every service in my power; and I b'ttle ima-
gined a liberal mind, like yours, could have been worked up by designing men to write me
such a letter in answer to an affectionate one 1 sent you, in the prospect of your return.
Dr A. 1 was happier with you than any man in the world for a great many years, and
complimented you not a little in the Day, and you did not write to me for a year and a half
after that.
Mr W. Your memory does not serve you faithfully, Doctor. In three or four months
at farthest, you had two or three letters from me together, on your return to the head-quar-
ters of the army. I am abused in Dies for that publication, and the manner, both of which
vou approved.
' DrA. I did so.
Mr W. I was abused at first, I am told, in the manuscript of Dies, for having sold the
copv, and put the monev in my pocket ; but that charge was suppressed in the printed letter.
Dr A. I know nothing of that, and will do you justice.
Mr W. Will you call upon Mr D , our common friend, your countryman, and ask
him what he thinks of your conduct to me, if it has not been wholly unjustifiable?
Dr A. Have I your leave to ask Mr Woodfall in your name about the letters ?
Mr W, 1 have already told you, Doctor, what directions he has from me. Take fbur-
and-twenty hours to consider what you have to do, and let me know the#rt suit.
Dr A. 1 am sorry to have taken up so much of your time, Sir.
Mr W. It stands in no need of an apology, Doctor. 1 am glad to see you. Good mor-
rcw
N. B. — These minutes were taken down the same afternoon, and sent to a friend
Digitized by
Google
80
HUGO AKNOT.
J udolence !i+ j is appropriately connected, bolli as a figure in the piece and as %
contributor to the verse. The following is his portraiture ;—
With him was sometimes joined in silent walk,
(Profoundly silent — for they never spoke)
One shyer it ill, who quite detested talk;
Oft stung hy spleen, at once away he broke.
To jfrfwes of pine, and brood overshadowing aak,
There, Inly thrilled, he wandered all alone,
And on himself his pensive fury wroke :
He never uttered word, savu, when rlrsi shone
The glittering star of eve — " Thank heaven ! the day is done ! "'
His contributions consist of four stanzas descriptive of the diseases to which the
votaries of indolence finally become martyrs.
The rank of Dr Armstrong as a poet is fixed by his Art of Preserving Health,
which is allowed to be among the best didactic poems in the language. It is
true, this species of poetry was never considered among the highest, nor has it
been able to retain its place among the tastes of a modern and more retired age,
Armstrong, however, in having improved upon a mode of composition fashionable
in his own time, must still be allowed considerable praise. " His style,** accord-
ing to the judgment of Dr Aikin, " is distinguished by its simplicity — by a free
use of words which owe their strength to their plainness — by the rejection of
ambitious ornaments, and a near approach to common phraseology* His sen-
tences are generally short and easy ; his sense clear and obvious. The full
extent of his conceptions is taken in at the first glance ; and there are no lofty
mysteries to he unravelled by a repeated perusal. What keeps bis language
from being prosaic, is the vigour of his sentiments. He thinks boldly, feels
strongly, and therefore expresses himself poetically. When the subject sinks,
his style sinks with it ; but he has for the most part excluded topics incapable
either of vivid description, or of the oratory of sentiment. He had from nature
a musical ear, whence his lines are scarcely ever harsh, though apparently with-
out much study to render ihcm smooth. On the whole, it may not be too much
to assert, that no writer in blank verse can be found more free from stiffness and
affectation, more energetic without harshness, and more dignified without
formality. *'
AK.NOT, Hugo, a historical and antiquarian writer of the eighteenth century,
was the son of a merchant and ship-proprietor at Leith, where he was born,
December 8th, 1740. His name originally was Pollock, winch he changed in
early life for Aruot, on falling heir, through his mother, to the estate of Balcor-
tno in Fife, As '* Hugo Arnot of Balcormo, Esq.," he is entered as a member
of the Faculty of Advocates, December 5, 1772, when just about to complete his
twenty-third year. Previous to this period, he had had the misfortune to lose his
father. Another evil which befell him in early life was a settled asthma, the
result of a severe cold which ho caught in his fifteenth year, As this disorder
was always aggravated by exertion of any kind, it became a serious obstruction
to his progress at the bar : some of his pleadings, nevertheless, were much ad-
mired, and obtained for him the applause of the bench. Perhaps it was this
interruption of his professional career which caused him to turn his attention to
literature. In 1779, appeared his " History of Edinburgh," 1 voL, 4to, a work
of much research, and greatly superior in a literary point of view to the gene-
rality of local works. The style of the historical part is elegant and epigram-
matic, with a vein of causticity highly characteristic of the author. From this
elaborate work the author is said to have only realized a few pounds of profit ;
a piratical impression, at less than half the price, was published almost simul*
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
HUGO ARNOT.
8L
tineously at Dublin, and, being shipped over to Scotland in great quantities
roropletely threw the author's edition out of the market. A booknikr^ xtcund
edition^ as it is called r appeared after the author's death, being simply the re-
mainder of the former stocky embellished with plates, and enlarged by some
additions from the pen of the publisher, Mr Creech* Anothet edition was pub-
lished in tivo, in 1S17, Mr Arnot seems to hare now lived on terms of literary
equality with those distinguished literary and professional character* who were
his fellow-townsmen and contemporaries. He did not, however, for some years
publish any other considerable or acknowledged work. He devoted his mind
chiedy to local subjects, and sent forth numerous pamphlets and newspaper
essays, which had a considerable effect in accelerating or promoting- the erec-
tion of various public works. The exertions of a man of his public spirit and
enlarged mind, at a time when the capital of Scotland was undergoing such a
thorough re novation and improvement, must hare been of material service to the
community, both of that and of all succeeding ages. Such they were acknow-
ledged to be by the magistrates, who bestowed upon him the freedom of the city.
We are told that Mr Ann it, by means of his influence in local matter*, was able
to retard the erection of the South Bridge of Edinburgh for ten years — not
that he objected to such an obvious improvement on iu own account, but only
in so far as the magistrates could devise no other method for defraying the ex-
pense than by a tax upon carters ; a mode of liquidating it, which Mr Arnot
thought grossly oppressive, as it fell in the first place upon the poor. He also
was the means of preventing for several years the formation of the present splen*
did road between Edinburgh and Lei tit, on account of the proposed plan (which
was afterwards unhappily carried into effect,) of defraying the expense by c toll;
being convinced, from what he knew of local authorities, that, if such an exac-
tion were once established, it would always, on some pretext or other, he kept up.
In 17 65, Mr Arnot published " A Collection of Celebrated Criminal Trials in Scot-
land, with Historical and Critical Remarks^* I voL 4to.; a work of perhaps even
greater research than his history of Edinburgh, and written in the same acutely
metaphysical and epigrammatic style* In the front of this volume appears a
largo list of subscribers, embracing almost all the eminent and considerable per-
sons in Scotland, with many of those in England, and testifying of course to the
literary and personal respectability of Mr ArnoL This work appeared without
a publisher's name, probably for some reason connected with the following cir-
cumstance* Owing perhaps to the unwillingness of the author to allow a suffi-
cient profit to the booksellers, the whole body of that trade in Edinburgh refus-
ed to let the subscription papers mid prospectuses hang in their shops ; for which
reason the author announced, by means of an advertisement in the newspapers*
that these articles might be seen in the coffee-houses, Mr Arnot received the
sum of six hundred pounds for the copies sold of this work, from which he would
have to pay the expenses of printing a thin quarto \ it thus happened that what
was rather the least laborious of his two works, was the most profitable. 31 r
Arnot only survived the publication of his Criminal Trials about a twelve month.
The asthma had ever since his fifteenth year been making rapid advances upon
him, and his person was now reduced almost to a shadow. While still young,
he carried all the marks of age, and accordingly the traditionary recollections ol
the historian of Edinburgh always point to a man in the extreme of life. Per-
haps nothing could indicate more expressively the miserable state to which Mr
Arnot was reduced by this disease, than his o\vn half-ludicrous, half-pathetic ex-
clamation, on being annoyed by the bawling of a mem selling sand on the
streets: "The rascal!" cried the unfortunate invalid, "he spends as much
breath in a minute as would serve me for a month P* Among the portraits and
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
82 HUGO ABNOT.
caricatures of the well known John Kay, may be found several faithful, though
somewhat exaggerated, memorials of the emaciated person of Hugo Arnot As
a natural constitutional result of this disease, he was exceedingly nervous, and
liable to be discomposed by the slightest annoyances : on the other hand, he
possessed such ardour and intrepidity of mind, that in youth he once rode on a
spirited horse to the end of the pier of Leith, while the waves were dashing over
it and every beholder expected to see him washed immediately into the sea !
On another occasion, having excited some hostility by a political pamphlet, and
being summoned by an anonymous foe to appear at a particular hour in a lonely
part of the King's Park, in order to fight, he went and waited four hours on the
spot, thus perilling his life in what might have been the ambuscade of a deadly
enemy. By means of the same fortitude of character, he beheld the gradual
approach of death with all the calmness of a Stoic philosopher. The magistrates
of Leith had acknowledged some of his public services, by the ominous compli-
ment of a piece of ground in their church-yard; and it was the recreation of
the last weeks of Mr Arnot's life to go every day to observe the progress made
by the workmen in preparing this place for his own reception. It is related
that he even expressed considerable anxiety lest his demise should take place
before the melancholy work should be completed. He died, November 30th,
1786, when on the point of completing his 37th year; that age so fatal to men
of genius that it may almost be styled their climacteric. He was interred in
the tomb fitted up by himself at South Leith. Besides his historical and local
works, he had published, in 1777, a fanciful metaphysical treatise, entitled,
" Nothing," which was originally a paper read before a well-known debating-
club styled the Speculative Society; being probably suggested to him by the
poem of the Earl of Rochester on the equally impalpable subject of Silence.
If any disagreeable reflection can rest on Mr Arnot's memory for the free scope he
has given to his mind in this little essay — a freedom sanctioned, if not excused,
by the taste of the age — he must be held to have made all the amends in his
power by the propriety of his deportment in later life ; when he entered hear-
tily and regularly into the observances of the Scottish episcopal communion, to
which he originally belonged. If Mr Arnot was any thing decidedly in poli-
tics, he was a Jacobite, to which party he belonged by descent and by religion,
and also perhaps by virtue of his own peculiar turn of mind. In modern poli-
tics, he was quite independent, judging all men and all measures by no other
standard than their respective merits. In his professional character, he was
animated by a chivalrous sentiment of honour worthy of all admiration. He
was so little of a casuist, that he would never undertake a case, unless he were
perfectly self-satisfied as to its justice and legality. He had often occasion to
refuse employment which fell beneath his own standard of honesty, though it
might have been profitable, and attended by not the slightest shade of disgrace.
On a case being once brought before him, of the merits of which he had an ex-
ceedingly bad opinion, he said to the intending litigant, in a serious manner,
" Pray, what do you suppose me to be ?" " Why," answered the client, " I un-
derstand you to be a lawyer.'* " I thought, Sir," said Arnot sternly, " you took
me for a scoundrel." The litigant, though he perhaps thought that the major in-
cluded the minor proposition, withdrew abashed. Mr Arnot left eight children, all
very young ; and the talent of the family appears to have revived in a new genera-
tion, vis., in the person of his grandson, Dr David Boswell Rcid, whose " Elements
of Chemistry" has taken its plane amongst the most useful treatises on the science, and
who was selected by Government, on account of his practical skill, to plan and super-
intend the ventilation of the new houses of parliament, in the prosecution of which
object he has for several years been conducting the most costly and prolonged, if
not the most successful, experiment of the kind ever made.
Digitized by
Google
SIR ROBERT AYTON. 83
AYTON, pm) Robert, an eminent poet at the court of James VL, was a
younger son of Andrew Ayton of Kinaldie, in Fife, and wai born in the year
1570. From the Registers of St Andrews University, it appears that he was
incorporated or enrolled as a student in St Leonard's College, December 3,
1584, and took his master's degree, after the usual course of study, in the year
1588. Subsequently to this, he resided for some time in France ; whence, in
1603, he addressed an elegant panegyric in Latin verse, to king James, on his
accession to the crown of Jfrgland, which was printed at Paris the same year ;
and this panegyric had, no doubt, some influence in securing ft> the author the
favour of that monarch, by whom he was successively appointed one of the gen-
tlemen of the bed-chamber, and private secretary to his queen, Anne of Denmark,
besides receiving the honour of knighthood. He was, at a later period of his
lite, honoured with the appointment of secretary to Henrietta Maria, queen
of Charles L It is recorded on Ayton's funeral monument, as' a distinction, that
he had been sent tie Germany as ambassador to the Emperor, with a work pub-
lished by king James, which is supposed to have been his Apology for the Oath
of Allegiance. If this conjecture be correct, it must have been in 1609, when
his majesty acknowledged a work published anonymously three years before, and
inscribed it to all the crowned heads of Europe. During Ayton's residence
abroad, as well as at the court of England, he lived in intimacy with, and se-
cured the esteem of the most eminent persons of his time. " He was acquainted,"
says Aubrey, " with all the nits of his time in England ; he was a great acquain-
tance of Mr Thomas Hobbes of Mahnesbury, whom Mr Hobbes told me he made
use of, together with Ben Jonson, for an Aristarohus, when he made his Epistle
dedicatory, for his translation of Thucydides." To thig information, we may
add, as a proof of this respect on the part of Ben Jonson, that, in his conversa-
tions with Drummond of Hawthornden, he said, "Sir Robert Ayton loved him
(Jonson) dearly."
Sir Robert Ayton died at London, in March, 1637-8, in the 68th year of his
age. He lies buried in the south aisle of the choir of Westminster Abbey, at
the corner of King Henry the Fifth's Chapel, under a handsome monument of
black marble, erected by his nephew, David Ayton of Kinaldie ; having his bust
in brass gilt, which has been preserved, while that of Henry, the hero of Agin-
court, (said to have been of a more precious metal,) has long since disappeared.
The following is a copy of the inscription :
M. S.
Clarissimi omnigenaq. virtute et ertiditione, presertlm Poesi ornatissimi equity .
Domini Roberti Aitoni, ex antiqua et illustri gente Aitona, ad Castrum Kinnadinum
apud Scotos, oriundi, qui a SerenisSimo R. Jacobo in Cubicula Interiors admissus, in
Germaniam ad Imperatorem, Imperiiq. Principes cum libello Regio, Regia) au-
thoritatis vindice, Legatus, ac primium Anns, demum Maris, serenissimis Britannia-
nun Reginis ab epistolis, consiliis et libellis supplicibus, nee non Xenodochio S*
Catherine pnefectus. Anuna Creatoris Reddita, hlc depositis mortalibus exuviis se-
cundum Redemptoris adventum expectat.
Carolum linquens, repetit Parentem
Et valedicens Marie revisit
Annam et Aula! decus, alto Olympi
Mutat Honore.
Obiit Ccelebs in Regio AlbauJa Hoc devoti gratiq. animi
Non sine maxhno Honore omnium Testimonium optimo Patruo
Luctu et Mcerore, MtaL sme L XVIII. Jo. Aitonus M L P.
Salut HumameM.DCXXXVIII.
Musarum nncus hic, Patrubq. Aulaeo* Dohique
Et Foris exemplar sed non imitabile honbsti.
Digitized by
Google
84 SIB ROBERT AYTON.
The poems of Sir Robert Ayton, for the first time published together in the
Miscellany of the Bannatyne Club, (from which we derive these particulars of
the poet's life,) are few in number, but of great merit. He composed no Scottish
poems, at least none that have come down to our times. He wrote in English,
and was, indeed, one of the first of our countrymen who composed in that lan-
guage with any degree of elegance or purity. It is unfortunate that the most
of his poems are complimentary verses to the illustrious individuals with whom
be was acquainted, and of course characterised only by a strain of conceited and
extravagant flattery. Those, however, upon general topics, are conceived in a
refined and tender strain of fancy, that reminds us more of the fairy strains of
Uerrick than any thing else. John Aubrey remarks, "that Sir Robert was
one of the best poets of his time," and adds the more important testimony
that " Mr John Dryden has seen verses of his, some of the best of that age,
printed with some other verses." According to Dempster, Ayton was also a
writer of verses in Greek and French, as well as in English and Latin. Several
of his Latin poems are preserved in the work called, " Delitiss Poetarum Scoto-
I rum," which was printed in his lifetime (1637) at Amsterdam.
One poem by Ayton, entitled, " Inconstancy Reproved," and commencing
with the words, " I do confess thouVt smooth and fair," was esteemed by Burns
worthy of being paraphrased into the native dialect of the author ; a process cer-
tainly of a very curious nature, as it might have rather been expected that the
poet of the eighteenth should have refined upon the poet of the seventeenth cen-
tury. It may be safely avowed that the modern poet has not improved upon his
predecessor. Perhaps the reader will be less familiar with the following equally
beautiful poems by Sir Robert Ayton, than with " Inconstancy Reproved," —
which, after all, is not ascertained to be his.
SONG.
What means this strangeness now of late,
Since time must truth approve?
This distance may consist with state-
It cannot stand with love.
'Tis either cunning or distrust.
That may such ways allow ;
The first is base, the last unjust;
Let neither blemish you.
For if you mean to draw me on,
There needs not half this art ;
And if you mean to have me gone,
You overact your part
If kindness cross your wished content,
Dismiss me with a frown,
I'll give you all the love that's spent,
The rest shall be my own.
ON WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY.
I loved thee once, I'll love no more,
Thine be the grief as is the blame ;
Thou art not what thou wast before.
What reason I should be the same?
He that can love unloved again,
Hath better store of love than brain :
God send me love my debts to pay,
While unthrifts fool their love away.
Digitized by
Google
SIR ROBERT AYTON.
85
Nothing could have my lore o'erthrown,
If thou hadst still con tiin u'i| mine :
Yea, If thou hadst remained thy own,
1 might perchance have yet been tiling
Bui thou thy freedom did recall,
That if thou might elsewhere enlhr&I ;
And then how could 1 but disdain
A captive'i captive to remain ?
When new desires had conquered thee,
And changed the object of thy will,
It bad been Lethargy In me,
Not constancy to love thee stilL
Yen, it had been a sin to go
And prostitute afiVction so
Sin re we are taught no prayers to any
To iuch as must to others pray.
let do thou glory In thy choice,
Thy choice of hi* good fortune boast;
111 neither grley* nor yet rejoice*
To see him gain what I have lost I
The height of my disdain all nil be,
To laugh at him, to blush for thee;
Tu love thee still, but go nu more,
A begging to a beggar's door.
THE ANSWER,
BY THE AUTHOR, AT THE KING'S MAJESTIES COMMAND.
Thou that loved once, now Lores no more,
For fear to show more love than brain ;
With heresy unhotch'd before,
Apostasy thou dost maintain.
Can he have either brain or love
That dost inconstancy approve?
A choice well made no change admits,
AH changes argue after-wits*
Say that she bad not hern the same,
Should thou therefore another be?
What thou in her as vice did blame,
Can thou take virtue's name in thee?
No f thou In this her captive was.
And made thee ready by hur glow;
Example led revenue astray,
When true love should have kept the way.
True love has no reflecting end,
The object good gels it at rest,
And noble- breasts will freely lend,
Without expecting interest*
'Tis merchants' love, 'tis trade for gala,
To barter love for love again :
Tis usury, yea, worse than this,
For self- idolatry it is.
Then let her choice be what It will,
Let constancy bo thy revenge ;
If thou retribute good for HI,
Bnth grief and shame bhall check her change.
Digitized by
Google
86 ROBERT BAILIIB.
Thus may'st thou laugh when thou shall mo
Remorse reclaim her home to thee;
And where thou beggW of her before,
She now site begging at thy door.
We submit that such elegant sentiments as these, expressed in such elegant
language, are an honour to their author, to his age, and country.
B
BAILLIE, Robert, one of the most eminent, and perhaps the most moderate,
of all the Scottish presbyterian clergy during the time of the civil war, was born
at Glasgow, in 1599. His father, Thomas Baillie, citizen, was descended from the
Baillies of Lamington ; his mother, Helen Gibson, was of the family of Gibson of
Durie ; both of which stocks are distinguished in presbyterian history. Having
studied divinity in his native university, Mr Baillie, in 1622, received episcopal
orders from Archbishop Law, of Glasgow, and became tutor to the son of the Earl of
Eglintoune, by whom he was presented to the parish church of Kilwinning. In
1626 he was admitted a regent at the college of Glasgow, and, on taking his
chair, delivered an inaugural oration, De Mente Agents. About this period he ap-
pears to have prosecuted the study of the oriental languages, in which he is al-
lowed to have attained no mean proficiency. For some years he lived in terms of
the strictest intimacy with the noble and pious family of Eglintoune, as also with
his ordinary, Archbishop Law, with whom he kept up an epistolary correspond
, dence. Baillie was not only educated and ordained as an episcopalian, but he
had imbibed from principal Cameron of Glasgow, the doctrine of passive resist-
ance. He appears, however, to have been brought over to opposite views during
the interval between 1630 and 1636, which he employed in discussing with his
fellow-clergymen the doctrines of Arminianism, and the new ecclesiastical regu-
lations introduced into the Scottish church by Archbishop Laud. Hence, in the
year 1636, being desired by Archbishop Law to preach at Edinburgh in favour
of the Canon and Service-books, he positively refused; writing, however, a re-
spectful apology to his lordship. Endeared to the resisting party by this con-
duct he was chosen to represent the presbytery of Irvine in the General Assem-
bly of 1638, by which the royal power was braved in the name of the whole
nation, and episcopacy formally dissolved. In this meeting, Baillie is said to
have behaved with great moderation ; a term, however, which must be under-
stood as only comparative, for the expressions used in his letter regarding the
matters condemned, are not what would now be considered moderate. In the
ensuing year, when it was found necessary to vindicate the proceedings of the
Glasgow Assembly with the sword, Baillie entered heartily into the views of his
countrymen. He accompanied the army to Dunse Law, in the capacity of
preacher to the Earl of Eglintoune's regiment ; and he it was, who has handed
down the well known description of that extraordinary camp. — ** It would have
done you good," he remarks in one of his letters, " to have cast your eyes athort
our brave and rich hills, as oil as I did, with great contentment and joy ; for
I was there among the rest, being chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our
shire, who came late with Lord Eglintoune, I furnished to half a dozen of good
fellows, muskets and pikes, and to my boy a broad sword. I carried myself; as
the fashion was, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle ; but I pro-
mise, for the offence of no man, except a robber in the way ; for it was our
part alone to pray and preach for the encouragement of our countrymen, which
I did to my power most chearfully." {Letters, vol i. p. 174.) He afterwards
states, " Our soldiers grew in experience of arms, in courage, and favour, daily.
Digitized by
Google
ROBERT BAILLIE. $7
Every one encouraged another. The sight of their nubles, and their he loved
pastors, daily raised their hearts. The good itTmoris and prayers, morning and
evening, under the roof of heaven , to which their drums did call them for bells ;
the remonstrance very freuuent of the goodness of their cause ; of their conduct
hitherto, by a hand clearly divine; Abo Leslie's skill, and pnidencet and for-
tune, made litem as resolute for buttle as could be wished We were feared
that emulation among out- nob leu might hare done Inrm, when they should be met
in the field; but such was the wisdom and authority of that old. Little, crooked
soldier, that all, with an incredible submission, from the beginning to the end,
gave orer themselves to be guided by him, as if be had been great Solyman
Had you lent your ear in the morning; or especially at even, and heard in the
tents the sound of some singing psalms, some praying, and some reading Scrip*
ture, ye would have been refreshed. True, there was swearing, and cursing, and
brawling, in some quarters, whereat we were grieved ; but wo hoped, if our camp
had been a little settled, to have gotten some way for these misorders ; for all of
any fashion did regret, and all promised to do their best endeavours for helping
all abuses. For myself, I never found my mind in better temper than it was all
that time since I came from home, till my head was again homeward; for I was
as a man who had taken my leave from the world, and was resolved to die in
that service without return/ 1 This expedition ended in a treaty between the
Scottish leaders and their sovereign, in terms of which hostilities ceased for a few
months. On the renewal of the insurrectionary war next year, Baillie accom-
panied the Scottish army on its march into England, and became the chronicler
»f its transactions. Towards the end of the year 1610, he was selected by the
Scottish leaders as a proper person to go to London, along with other commis-
lioners, to prepare charges against Archbishop Land, for his innovations upon
the Scottish church, which were alleged to have been the origin of the war* He
had, in April, before the expedition, published a pamphlet, entitled, Ek Laden-
si em ApTQuMTitKoiaif : the Cauterburian's Self-conviction \ or an Evident Demon-
stration of the avowed Anninianisme, Foperie, and Tyrannie of that Faction, by
their own confessions,'* which perhaps pointed him out as fit to take a lead in
the prosecution of the great Antichrist of Scottish presbytery. OF this and al-
most all the other proceedings of his public life, he has left a minute account in
his letters and journals, which are preserved entire in the archives of the church
of Scotland, and in the university of Glasgow, and of which excerpts were pi: I -
lished in 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1775. These re liquet of Mr llaillie form val-
uable materials of history. Not long after hh return to his native country, in
1642, he was appointed joint professor of divinity at Glasgow, along with Mr
David Dickson, an equally distinguished, but less moderate divine. It anords
some proof of the estimation in which he was now held, that he had the choice
of this appointment in all the four universities of Scotland. He performed his
duties from this period till the restoration, and at the same time attended all the
General Assemblies as a member, except during an interval in lu"i3-o, when he
was Absent as a delegate to the Westminster assembly of divines. In this Litter
capacity, he conducted himself in an unobtrusive manner, but fully concurred in the
principles and views of the more prominent men. It is observable from his let-
ten, that, with the pardonable earnestness of his. age and party, he looked upon
toleration as a thing fatal to religion, and strenuously asserted the divine right
of the presbyterian church to be established in complete ascendancy and power
as a substitute fur the church of England- From 1G-1G to 1649, he discharged
his ordinary duties as a theological teacher, without taking a leading part in
public affairs. But in the latter year, he was chosen by the church, as the fit-
test penon to carry its homage to king Cliarles IL at the Hague, and to invite
Digitized by
Googk
83
ROBERT BAILLIE.
thai youthful monarch to assume the government In Scotland, under the limita-
tions and stipulations of the covenant This duty he executed with a degree of
dignity and propriety, which could have been expected from no member of hit
church, but one, who, like him had spent several years in conducting high diplo-
matic affairs in England. Indeed, Mr Baillie appears in every transaction ot
his life, to have been an accomplished man of the world; and yet retaining, along
with habits of expediency, the most perfect sincerity in his religious views.
When the necessary introduction of the malignants into the king's service, caused
a strong division in the church, in 1651, Baillie, as might have been expected
from hia character and former history, sided with the yielding or Resolutionist
party, and soon became its principal leader. On this account he, and many other
sincere men, were charged by the Protesting and less worldly party, with a declen-
sion from the high principles of the covenant ; a charge to which he, at least,
certainly was not liable. After the Restoration, though made Principal of his
college through court patronage, he scrupulously refused to accept a bishopric,
and did not hesitate to express his dissatisfaction with the re-introduction of
episcopacy. His health now declining, he was visited by the new-made arch-
bishop, to whom he thus freely expressed himself: '* Mr Andrew,' 1 said he, " 1
will not now call you my lord. King Charles would have made me one of these
lords ; but I do not find in the New Testament that Christ has any lords in bis
house." He considered this form of religion and ecclesiastical government as
" inconsistent with Scripture, contrary to pure and primitive antiquity, and dia-
metrically opposed to the true interest of the country." He died, July, 1668,
in the 63d year of his age.
Mr Baillie, besides his Letters and Journals, and a variety of controversial
pamphlets, suitable to the spirit of the times, was the author of a respectable
and learned work, entitled, " Opus Hifdorictan ei Chronologicvm," which was
published in folio at Amsterdam. He was a man of extensive learning — under-
stood no fewer than thirteen languages, among which were Hebrew, Chaldee,
Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, and Ethiopic, — and wrote Latin with almost Augus-
tan elegance. He left a large family : one of his daughters, becoming the wife
of Walkinshaw of Barrowfield, was, by a strange chance, the ancestress of Miss
Clementina Walkinshaw, well known from her connexion with the history of
Prince Charles Stuart— -and also grandmother to the celebrated Henry Home,
better known under the judicial designation of Lord Karnes.
BAILLIE, Robert, of Jerviswood, an eminent patriot of the reign of Charles
II., was the son of George Baillie of St John's kirk in Lanarkshire, cadet of the
ancient family of Baillie of Lamington, who appears to have purchased the estate
of Jerviswood, also in Lanarkshire, in the reign of Charles I., from a family cf
the name of Livingstone. It is stated by the Jacobite, Robert Mylne, in the
publication called " FountainhalTs Notes," that the first circumstance which
alienated the mind of Robert Baillie from the government, was his marrying a
daughter of Sir Archibald Johnston of Warristoun, who, having borne a conspi-
cuous part in the civil war from its beginning, was executed after the Restora-
tion. Whatever be the truth of this allegation, Baillie appears before the year
1676, to have been otherwise allied to the non-conformi6t party.
The incident which first brought him forward into view as a subject of perse-
cution, was one of those interferences in behalf of natural justice, where all sense
of consequences is overborne by the exigency of the occasion. During the
misgovernment of the Duke of Lauderdale, a wretched profligate of the name of
Carstairs had bargained with Archbishop Sharpe to undertake the business of
an informer upon an uncommonly large scale, having a troop of other informers
under him, and enjoying a certain reward for each individual whom he could
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
ROBERT RA1LUK. gj)
detect at the conrenticles, besides a share of the fines imposed upon them. It
may be supposed that an individual who could permit himself to enter upon a
profession of this kind, would not be very scrupulous as to the guilt of the peiv
* -its w bom he sought to make his prey. He Accordingly appears to hare, at
least in one noted instance, pounced upon an individual who was perfectly in-
nocent This was Lhe Hey. Mr Kirkton, a non-conformist minister it is true,
but one who had been cautious to keep strictly within the verge of the law,
Kirkton was the brother-in-law of Mr Bailiie of Jerviswood, by his marriage to
the sister of that gentleman, and he is eminent in Scottish literary history for a
memoir of the church during his own tiuies, which was of great service in manu-
script to the historian Wodrow, and was at length published hi 1#17. One day
In June, lo'7o\ as *>lr Kirkton was walking along the High Street of Edinburgh,
Carstairs, whoso person he did not know, accosted him in a rery civil manner,
and expressed a desire to speak with him in private. Mr Kirkton, suspecting
no evil, followed Carstairs to a rery mean-Looking house f near the common
prison. Carstairs, who had no warrant to apprehend or detain Mr Kirk (mi,
went out to get one, locking the door upon his victim. 1 The unfortunntc cler-
gyman then perceived that he was in some danger, and prevailed upon a person
in the house to go to seek his brother-in-law, Mr Bailiie, and apprise him of his
situation. Carstairs, having in vain endeavoured to get the requisite number of
privy-councillors to sign a warrant, now came back, resolved, it appears, to try
at least if he could not force some money from Mr Kirkton tor his release. Just
as they were about to confer upon this subject, Mr Bailiie came to the door,
with sereral other persons, and called to Carstairs to open. Kirkton, hearing
the voices of friends, book courage, and desired his captor either to set him lVee,
or to show a warrant for his detention. Carstairs, instead of doing either, drew
a pocket pistol, and Kirkton found it necessary, for his own safety, to enter into
a personal struggle, and endeavour to secure the weapon of his antagonist. The
gentlemen without, hearing a struggle, and cries of murder, burst open the door,
and found Carstairs sitting upon Mr Kirkton, on the (lour. Bailiie drew his
sword, and commanded the poltroon to come olfj asking him at the same time if
he had any warrant for apprehending Mr Kirkton. Carstairs said he had a
warrant for conducting him to prison, but he utterly refused to show it, though
Mr Bailiie said that, if he saw any warrant against his friend, he would assist
in carrying it into execution. The wretch still persisting in saying he had a
warrant, but was not bound to show it, Mr Bailiie Left the place, with Mr Kirk-
ton and other friends, having oflered no violence whatever io Carstairs, hut only
threatened to sue him for unlawful invasion of his brother-in-law's person.
It might have been expected from even a government so lost to all honour
aud justice as that which now prevailed in Scotland, that it would have had at
least the good $en$t to overlook this unhappy accident to one of its tools. On
the contrary, it was resolved to brave the popular feeling of right, by listening
to the complaints of Carstairs. Through the in due nee of Archbishop Shorpe,
iv ho said that, if Carstairs was not countenanced, no one would be procured to
apprehend fanatics afterwards, a majority of the council agreed to prosecute
Bailiie, Kirkton, and the other persons concerned. For -this purpose, an ante-
dated warrant was furnished to Carstairs, signed by nine of the councillors. The
Marquis of Atholl told Bishop Burnet, that he hail been one of the nine who
lent their unities to this infamous document The whole cose was therefore
made out to be a tumult against the government; Bailiie was lined in six thou-
sand merks, [£'3 18 sterling)' and his friends in smaller sums, and to be im-
prisoned till they should render payment
1 Bui nut, WW row's account Is slightly different
* Wo J row sius £5fl0 stlvrJhig* m>w edit- *. £■ p. $&
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
90
ROBEBT BiiLLlB.
This award waa 10 opposite, in every particular, to the principles of truth,
honour, and juatioe, that, even if not directed against individuals connected with
the popular cause, It could not have failed to excite general indignation. It
appears that a respectable minority of the council itself was strongly opposed to
the decision, and took care to let it be known at court. Mr Baillie was there-
fore released at- the end of four months* in consideration of payment of one half
of his fine to the creature Carstaira. Lord Hakon, however, who was at this
time a kind of pro-regent under his brother Lauderdale, had interest to obtain
the dismissal of his opponents from the council, namely, the Duke of Hamilton,
the Earls of Morton, Dumfries, and Kincardine, and the Lords Cochrane and
Primrose, whom he branded, /or their conduct on this occasion, as enemies to
the church and favourers of conventicles.
After this period, nothing is known of Mr Baillie till the year 1683, when
he is found taking a prominent share in a scheme of emigration, agitated by a
number of Scottish gentlemen, who saw no refuge but this from the tyranny of
the government These gentlemen entered into a negotiation with die paten-
tees of South Carolina, for permission to convey themselves thither, along with
their families and dependents. While thus engaged, Mr Baillie was induced,
along with several of his friends, to enter into correspondence and counsel with
the heads of the Puritan party in England, who were now forming an extensive
plan of insurrection, for die purpose of obtaining a change of measures in the
government, though with no ulterior view. Under the pretext of the American
expedition, Lord Melville, Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, Mr Baillie, and three
others, were invited and repaired to London, to consult with the Duke of Mon-
mouth, Sydney, Russell, and the rest of that party* This scheme was never pro-
perly matured ; indeed, it never was any thing but a matter of talk, and had
ceased to be even that, when a minor plot for assassinating the king, to which
only a small number of the party were privy, burst prematurely, and involved
several of the chiefs, who were totally ignorant of it, in destruction. Sydney
and Russell suffered for this crime, of which they were innocent ; and Baillie
and several other gentlemen were seized and sent down to be tried in Scotland. 2
The subsequent judicial proceedings were characterised by the usual violence
and illegality of the time. He endured a long confinement, during which he
was treated very harshly, and not permitted to have the society of his lady,
though she offered to go into irons, as an assurance against any attempt at faci-
litating his escape. An attempt was made to procure sufficient proof of guilt
from the confessions wrought out of his nephew4n-law, the Earl of Tarras (who
had been first married to the elder sister of the Duchess of Monmouth) ; hut,
this being found insufficient, his prosecutors were at last obliged to adopt the
unlawful expedient, too common in those distracted times, of putting him to a
purgative oath. An accusation was sent to him, not in the form of an indictment,
nor grounded on any law, but on a letter of the king, in which he was charged
with a conspiracy to raise rebellion, and a concern in the Ryehouse Plot He
was told that, if he would not clear himself of these charges by his oath, he
should be held as guilty, though not as in a criminal court, but only as before
the council, .who had no power to award a higher sentence than fine and im-
prisonment. As he utterly refused to yield to such a demand, he was fined by
s Mr Koto, in his Observations on Mr Fox's History, relates that the hope of a pardon
bemg held out to him, on condition of his gWing information respecting some friends sup-
posed to be engaged with him, his answer was, *' They who can make such a proposal to me
neither know me nor my country;" an expression of which the latter part is amply justified
by fact, for, as Lord John Russell has justly observed, in his Memoirs of Lord William
Russell, " It is to the honour of Scotland, that [on this occasion] no witnesses came forward
voluntarily, to accuse their associates, as had been done in England.*'
Digitized by
Google
ROBERT BAILLIE. 91
the council in £6,000, being about the value of his whole estates. It was then
supposed that the prosecution would cease, and that he would escape with the
doom of a captive. For several months he continued shut up in a loathsome
prison, which had such an effect upon his health that he was brought almost to
the last extremity. Yet M all the while," to use the words of Bishop Burnet, 9
" he seemed so composed, and even so cheerful, that his behaviour looked like a
reviving of the spirit of die noblest of the old Greeks or Romans, or rather of
the primitive Christians, and first martyrs in those last days of the church." At
length, on the 23rd of December, 1684, he was brought before the court of
justiciary. He was now so weak as to be obliged to appear at the bar in his
night-gown, and take frequent applications of cordials, which were supplied to
him by his sister, the wife of Mr Ker of Graden. The only evidence that could
be produced was the confessions forced from his friends by torture, one of
whom, the Rev. Mr Carstairs, afterwards the distinguished Principal of the
Edinburgh University, had only emitted a declaration, on an express promise
that no use was to be made of it Mr Baillie solemnly denied having been
accessary to any conspiracy against the king's life, or being- unfavourably dis-
posed to monarchical government He complained that his friends had been
forced to bring forth untrue representations against him. Indeed, there can be
no doubt that the whole extent of his offence was a desire to procure gome ame-
lioration of the measures, and not any change of the members of the govern-
ment ; we say desire, because it never could be proved that a single step had
been taken in the matter, nor is there the least probability that it would have
ever been heard of, but for the trials of several innocent persons.
A cavalier and contemporary writer has alleged that Mr Baillie conducted
himself on his trial in a very haughty and scornful manner, — " very huffy and
proud," is the expression used — but this probably is only the colour given by a
political enemy to the Roman dignity, which Burnet saw in his behaviour. Af-
ter the evidence had been adduced, and when the Lord Advocate had ended his
charge, the following remarkable dialogue took place between him and that offi-
cer:
M My lord, I think it very strange that you charge me with such abominable
things ; you may remember that when you came to me in person, you told me
that such things were laid to my charge, but that you did not believe them,
How then, my lord, did you come to lay such a stain upon me with so much- vio-
lence P Are yon now convinced in your conscience that I am more guilty than
before t You may remember what passed betwixt us in prison."
The whole audience fixed their eyes upon the advocate, who appeared in no
small confusion, and said,
"Jerviswood, I own what you say. My thoughts there were as a private
man ; but what I say here is by special direction of the privy council. And,"
pointing to Sir William Paterson, clerk, " he knows my orders."
"Well," said Baillie, M if your lordship have one conscience for yourself, and
another for the council, I pray God forgive you ; I do. My lords," he added,
M I trouble your lordships no further."
The assise was empannelled at midnight, and sat till nine in the morning of
the succeeding day, when a verdict of guilty was returned against Mr Baillie,
and he was sentenced to be executed that afternoon, at the cross, and his limbs
to be afterwards exhibited on the Jails of four different Scottish towns. The
reason for such precipitation was the fear of his judges that a natural death
would disappoint the wishes of the government, which called imperatively at this
8 Bernet* being the nephew of Sir Archibald Johnstone, was cousin by marriage to Mr
Digitized by
—
92
MATTHEW BAILLIE, Al.D.
moment for a public example to terrify it* opponents. Baillie only said, " Mj
lords, the time is short, the sentence is sharp, but 1 tliank my (iod who hath
made me as fit to die as you are to LVe." On returning to the prison he ex*
perienced what Wodrow describes as *' a wonderful rapture of joy, from the
insurance he had t that in a few hours he should be inconceivably happy/*
Mr BaiiUe was attended to the scaffold by his faithful and affectionate sister,
tie had prepared an address to the people ; but knowing that he might be pre-
vented from delivering it T he had previously giren it to his friends in writing.
It is said that the government after wards offered to give up his body for burin],
if his friends would agree to suppress this document. They appear to hare re-
jected the proposition. The unfortunate gentleman was so weak that he requir-
ed to be assisted in mounting the ladder : he betrayed, however no symptom of
moral iveakness. Just before being consigned to his fate, he said, in the sell-
nccusing spirit of true excellence, " My faint zeal for the protectant religion hits
brought mo to this end.* 1 His sister*! u-law f with the stern virtue of her family,
waited to the last.
" ■"l'lin^"' says Bishop Burnet, " a learned and worthy genUeman, after twenty
months* hard usage, was brought to death, in a way so full in all the steps of it
of the spirit and practice of the courts of inquisition, l hat one is templed to
think that the methods taken in it were suggested by one well studied, if not
practised, in them. The only excuse that ever was pretended for this infamous
prosecution was, that they were sure he was guilty ; and that the whole secret of
the negotiation between the two kingdoms was intrusted to him ; and that, since
he would not discover it, all methods might be taken to destroy him. Not con-
sidering what a precedent they made on this occasion, by which, if they were
once possessed of an ill opinion of a man, they were to spore neither artifice nor
violence, but to hunt him down by any means.* 7
Ih- Owen lias testified in a strong manner to the great abilities of the Scottish
Sydney* Writing to a Scottish friend, he said, "You have truly men of great
spirits among you ; there is, for a gentleman, Mr Baillie of Jerviswood, a person
of the greatest abilities I ever almost met with,"
Mr HoilbVs family was completely ruined by his forfeiture. He left a son,
George Baillie, who, after his execution, was obliged to take refuge in Holland,
whence he oiler wards returned with the Prince of Orange, by whom he was re-
stored to his estates. The wile of this gentleman was Miss 1 »rizel Hume, daugh-
ter of Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, a fellow-patriot of Mr Robert Baillie. The
occasion of their meeting was very remarkable. Miss Grizel, when a very young
girl, was sent by her father from the country, to endeavour to convey a letter to
Mr Baillie in prison, and bring bock what intelligence she could. She succeed-
ed in this difficult enterprise : and having at the same time met with Mr Baillie "s
son, the intimacy and friendship was formed, which was afterwards completed
by their marriage.
BAILiLlK, Matthrw, M.D. a distinguished modern physician and anatomist, was
the son of the Rev. James Baillie, D.B. Professor of Divinity in the V niveraity
of Uloagotv, He was born October 27, 17 b" 1, in the manse of Shotts, of which
parish his fattier was then minister. The father of Dr Matthew Baillie was sup-
posed to be descended from the family of Baillie of JemswoocL, so noted in the his-
tory of Scottish freedom ; bis mother was a sister of the two celebrated anatomists,
Dr William and Mr John Hunter; and one of his two sisters was Miss Joanna
■ " Thu Lndy Graden, with a moro than masculine cow ma h, attended him on the scaffold
tin he was quartered, and wont with IJic hangman and saw his quarters sodden, ay led, &c"
— Jfatntmn/ia/fa Notex t H7 r IIS. It is scarcely possible for an individual accustomed tc
the fc t lings of modem sodrty to brieve such a statement.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
MATTHEW BAILLIE, RLD. 93
Baillie T the late well known and amiable authoress of " Flays on the Passions, 1 '
After receiving t}h: rudiment* of his education under his father's immediate su-
perintendence, he began his acn deiuical coune in 177 3, in the University of
Ulasg ow, where he distinguished himself so highly as to be transferred, in 1778,
upon Sn ell's lot nidation, to Baliol College, Oxford, Here, when he had attained
the proper standing, he took his degrees in arts and physic In 1780, while
still keeping his terms at Oxford, he commenced his anatomical studies at Lon-
don, under the care of his uncles. He had the great advantage of residing with
Dr William Hunter, and, when he became sufficiently advanced in his studies, of
being employed to make the necessary preparations for the lectures, to conduct
die demonstrations, and to superintend the operations of the students. On the
death of Dr Hunter, March 17 83, he was found qualified to become the successor
of that great man, in conjunction with Mr Cruickshank, who had previously
been employed as Dr Hunter's assistant His uncle appointed him by will to
hare the use of his splendid collection of anatomical preparations, so long as he
should continue an anatomical lecturer, after which it was to be transferred to
Glasgow College* Dr Bailb'e began to lecture in 1784, and soon acquired
the highest reputation as an anatomical teacher. He was himself indefatigable
in the business of forming preparations, adding, it is said, no fewer than eleven
hundred articles to his uncle's museum. He possessed the valuable talent of
making an abstruse and difficult subject plain ; his prelections were remarkable
for that lucid order and cleitrness of expression which proceed from a perfect
conception of the subject; and he never permitted any vanity of display to turn
him from his great object of conveying information in the simplest and most
intelligible way, and so as to become useful to his pupils. The distinctness of
his elocution was also much admired, notwithstanding that he never could alto-
gether shake on" the accent of his native country. In 1755, Dr. Baillie embodied
the knowledge he possessed through his own observations and those of his uncle,
in a small but most valuable work, entitled, " The Morbid Anatomy of some of
the most important parts of the Human Body," which was immediately translated
i i in French and German, and extended his name to every land where medical
science was cultivated, The publication of this little treatise was, indeed, an
em in the history of medical knowledge in this country. It combined all the
information formerly scattered through the writings of Bonetus, Lieutaud, and
Montagni, besides the immense store of observations made by the ingenious
author. The knowledge of the changes produced on the human frame by disease
had previously been very imperfect; but it was now so completely elucidated
that, with the assistance of this little volume, any person previously acquainted
with morbid symptoms, but unacquainted with the disease, could, upon an exami-
nation after death, understand the whole malady. Ferhaps no production of
the period, ever had so much influence on the study of medicine, or contributed
•o much to correct unfounded speculations upon the nnture of disease, to excite
a spirit of observation, and to lead the attention of the student to fact and ex-
perience* Along with all its excellencies, it was delightful to observe the
extreme modesty and total absence of pretension, with which the author, in the
fulness of his immense knowledge, ushered it into the world*
In 1787, Dr Baillie had been elected physician to St George's Hospital, a
situation which afforded him many of those opportunities of observation upon
which the success of his work on Morbid Anatomy was founded. In 17SU T
having taken bis degree of M.D, at Oxford, he was admitted a candidate at the
College of Physicians, and in the following year had the full privileges of fel-
lowship conferred upon him* About the same time, he was elected a fellow
of the Royal Society, to which he had contributed two essays. He served the
I L±=
-
94 MATTHEW BAILLIE, MJ).
office of censor in the Royal College of Physicians, in 1792 and 1797, and that
of commisiioner under the act of parliament for the inspection and licensing of
mad-houses, in 1794 and 1795.
In 1799, Dr Baillie relinquished the business of an anatomical lecturer, and
in 1800 resigned his duties as physician to St George's Hospital Partly by
the influence of his fame as an anatomist, and partly through the disinterested
recommendations of several members of his own profession, he found himself
gradually tempted into the less agreeable business of a general physician. H«
was always resorted to, when more than ordinary scientific precision was re*
quired. About the year 1801, when he had attained the mature age of forty,
lie had become completely absorbed in practice. . As a physician, he possessed,
in an eminent degree, a facility in distinguishing diseases,<*--one of the most
important Qualifications in the practice of medicine ; as a want of accuracy in
discriminating symptomatic from primary affections leads to the most serious
errors ; whilst it may be said that, when a disease is once distinctly character-
ised, and the peculiarities of the case defined, the cure is half performed. Ha-
bits of attentive observation had enabled Dr Baillie to know, with great accuracy,
the precise extent of the powers of medicine ; indeed, there was no class of
cases more likely to fall under his observation than those in which they had
been abused ; younger practitioners being apt to carry a particular system of
treatment beyond its proper limits ; Dr Baillieto readiness, therefore, in seeing
this abuse, rendered his opinions, in many cases, of great value. Yet he was
always scrupulously anxious, through the natural benignity of his disposition, to
use his knowledge with a delicate regard to the interests of those juniors whose
procedure he was called upon to amend. He managed, indeed, this part of his
practice with so much delicacy that he was held in the utmost affection and
esteem by the younger branches of the profession.
Dr Baillie was remarkahle for forming his judgment of any case before him
from his own observations exclusively ; carefully guarding himself against any
prepossessions from the opinions suggested by others. When he visited a pa-
tient, he observed him accurately, he listened to him attentively, he put a few
pointed questions— and his opinion was formed. Beneath a most natural and
unassuming manner, which was the same on all occasions, was concealed an
almost intuitive power of perceiving the state of his patient His mind was
always quietly, but eagerly directed, to an investigation of the symptoms ; and
he had so distinct and systematic a mode of putting questions, that the answers
of his patients often presented a connected view of the whole case. On such
occasions, he avoided technical and learned phrases ; he affected none of that
sentimental tenderness, which is sometimes assumed by a physician with a view
to recomme n d himself to his patient; but he expressed what he had to say in
the simplest and plainest terms ; with some pleasantry, if the occasion admitted
of it, and with gravity and gentleness, if they were required ; and he left bit
patient, either encouraged or tranquillized, persuaded that the opinion he had
received was sound and honest, whether it was unfavourable or not, and that his
physician merited his confidence. In delivering or writing his opinions, he was
equally remarkable for unaffected simplicity. His language was sometimes so
plain, that his patients have been able to repeat to their other medical atten-
dants, every word which he had uttered. In consultation, he gave his opinion
concisely, and with a few grounds; those grounds being chiefly facts, rather than
arguments, so that little room was left for dispute. If any difference or diffi-
culty arose, his example pointed out the way of removing it, by an appeal to
other facts, and by a neglect of speculative reasoning.
In every relation and situation of private life, Dr Baillie was equally to be
Digitized by
Google
MATTHEW BAILLIfi, M.D, 95
admired ; and it must be added, Lhiit the same liberal and just ideas which, on
all occasions, guided his conduct as an individual, ruled him in his many public
duties '. he never countenanced any measures which had the appearance of op-*
pression or hostility towards the members of his profession. Men seldom act,
collectively, with the same honour and integrity as they would do individually :
and a member of a public body requires an unusual share of moral courage, who
opposes those measures of his associates, which ho may not himself approve of;
but if there was one qualification more than another, which gave Dr Baillie the
public confidence he enjoyed, and raised htm to the zenith of professional dis-
tinction, it was his inflexible integrity.
In 1799, Dr Baillie commenced the publication of ,l A Series of Engraving*,
to illustrate some parts of Morbid Anatomy," in successive fasciculi, which were
completed in 1 yo*2. The drawings for this splendid work were done by Mr
Glift, the Conservator of the Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; and
they were creditable at once to the taste and liberality of Dr Baillie, and to the
state of art in that day, Dr Baillie afterwards published ** An Anatomical de-
scription of the Gravid L* terns ; " and throughout the whole course of his pro-
fessional life, he contributed largely to the transactions and medical collections
of the time. Whan he was at the height of his popularity, he enjoyed a higher in-
come than any preceding physician, and which was only inferior to the sum
received by one particular contemporary. In one of his busiest years, when ho
had scarcely time to take a single meal, it is said to have reached £ 1 U r GOQ.
He was admitted to have the greatest consultation buttinex* of his time ; and it
was known that he ivas applied to for medical advice from many distant quarters
of the world. From his arduous, and to his mind, often irksome duties, he en-
joyed no relaxation for many years, till at length he began to indulge in on
annual retirement of a few months to the country* On one of the first of these
occasions, he paid a visit to the land of his birth, which t during on absencu of
thirty years, spent in busy and distracting pursuits, be had never ceased to re-
gard with the most tender feelings. The love of country was, indeed, a promi-
nent feature in his character ; and be was prepared on this occasion to realize
many enjoyments which he had previously contemplated with enthusiasm, in the
prospect of once more beholding- the land nnd friends of his youth. The result
was far different from his expectations, He found most of his early companions
either scattered over the world, in search, as he himself had been, of fortune* or
else forgotten in untimely graves ; of those who survived, many were removed
beyond his sympathies by that total alteration of feeling which a difference of
worldly circumstances so invariably effects in the hearts of early friends, on the
side of the depressed party as well as the elevated.
Dr Baillie was introduced to the favourable notice of the royal family, in con-
sequence of his treatment of the duke of Glouisester. Being subsequently joined
in consultation with the king's physicians, upon bis majesty's own unhappy case,
he came more prominently than ever into public view, as in some measure the
principal di rector of the royal treatment. The political responsibility of this
situation was so very weighty, that, if Dr Baillie had been a man of less firmness
of nerve, he could scarcely have maintained himself under it. Such, however,
was the public confidence in his inflexible integrity, that, amidst the hopes and
fears which for a long time agitated the nation, on the subject of the king's
health, the opinion of Dr Baillie ever regulated that of the public On the iirst
vacancy, which occurred in 1 810, he was appointed one of the physicians to the
king, with the offer of a baronetcy, which, however, bis good sense and unas-
sinning disposition induced him to decline.
Dr Baillie at length sunk under the weight of his practice k notwithstanding
Digitized by VjOOQIC
M
GENERAL SIR DAVID BAlRlL
that for several years he hnd taken every possible expedient to shift off tiis
duties to the care of younger aspirants. At the hist quarterly mceUng of tli*
Goto* of Physicians before his death, when there was * full assemblage of
members, >* the midst of the affairs for the consideration of which they wkt*
called together, Dr Bailie entered the room, emaciated, hectic, and with all
the symptoms of approaching dissolution. Such was the effect of lm sudden
and unexpected appearance, that the public business was suspended, and miry
one present instantly and spontaneously rose, and remained standm* until LJr
Bailie bad tsken his seat*, the incident though trivial evinces the effectionate
en™ with which he was regarded. Beside the natural claim he had upon this body,
trera his unapproached anatomical and medical skill, and the extraordinary
benignity and worth of his character, he had entitled himself to its peculiar
gratitude by leaving to it the whole of his valuable collection of preparations,
together with the sum of six hundred pounds to keep it in order. Dr Baillie-
died on the 23d of September, 1823.
Dr Bailie had married, 5 th May, 1791, Miss Sophia Den man, second daughter ot
Dr Den man of London, a distinguished physician, and sister of Mr,, subsequently
Lord Den man and Lord High Chancellor of England. By her be left one ion, to
whom he devoted his estate of Daniis bourne, in Gloucestershire, and one daughter.
The sums and effects destined by his will, many of which were given to medical institu-
tions and public charities, were sworn in the Prerogative Court at less than £80,000.
Dr Bail lie is thus characterised in the Annual Ob it vary for IB 24, "He
seemed to have an innate goodness of heart, a secret sympathy with the virtuous
and to rejoice in their honourable and dignified conduct, as in a thing in which
he had a personal interest, and as if he felt that his own character was raised by
it, as well as human nature ennobled. He censured warmly what he disapproved,
from a strong attachment to what is right, not to display his superiority to otheii,
or to give vent to any asperity of temper ; at the same time he was indulgent to
failings ; his kindness to others leading him on many occasions to overlook what
was due to himself; and even in his last illness he paid gratuitous professional
visits winch were above his strength, and was in danger of suddenly exhausting
himself by exertions for others. His liberal disposition was well known to all
acquainted with public subscriptions; the great extent to which it showed itself
in private benefactions is known only to those who were nearly connected with
him, and perhaps was fully known only to himself,"
HAIRD, (the Right Honourable, General Sir) David, a distinguished comman-
der during the wars of the French Revolution, was the second surviving son of
William Baird, Esq., heir, by settlement, of his second cousin Sir John Baird, of
Newbyth, Bart. He entered the army, December 10, 177^, as an ensign in the
2nd foot, joined the regiment at Gibraltar, April 1773, and returned to Britain
in I77(i, Having been promoted to a lieutenancy in 1778! he immediately
after obtained a company in the 73rd, a regiment then just raised by I^oni
Macleod, with which he sailed for India, and arrived at Madras, January 17 80,
This young regiment was here at once ushered into the trying and hazardous
scenes of the war against Hydcr Ally, whom the KngH&h company had provoked
by a shameful breach of faith into a hostility that threatened to overwhelm it.
In July 1780, while the company, exclusive of Lord Macleod's regiment, hud
only about 5,001} men under arms, Hydcr burst into the Camatic with an army
nf 100,000 men, disciplined and cnumiandtid by French officers, and laid alegar
In A rent, the capital of the only native prince friendly to the British. Sir
Hector Munro, commander-in-chief of the Company's troops, set out lo relieve
this city on the 95th of August, expecting to be joined on the 30th. by a large
detachment then in Uie northern drears under Colonel Baillic. On learning this
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
GENERAL SIR DAVID BAIRD. 97
movement, Hyder left Arcot, and threw himself in the way of Colonel Baillie.
In order to favour, if possible, the approach of this officer, Sir Hector Munro,
on the 5th of September, changed his position a little, and advanced two miles
on the Trepassore road, which brought him within a short distance from the
enemy. Hyder then detached his brother-in-law, Meer Saib, with 8,000 horse,
to attack Colonel Baillie, and afterwards an additional force of 6,000 infantry,
18,000 cavalry, and 12 pieces of cannon, under his son, the celebrated Tippoo.
He at the same time made demonstrations on his front, to keep up the attention
of Sir Hector and the main army. Baillie, though commanding no more than
2,000 Sepoys and a few European companies, gained a complete victory over
the immense force sent against him, but at the same time sent word to Sir
Hector, that, unless provision were made for accomplishing a junction, he must
certainly be cut off The commander-in-chief held a council of war, when it
was determined at all hazards to send a reinforcement, for the purpose of achiev-
ing the relief of this gallant officer. A small force was selected, consisting
principally of the grenadier and infantry companies of Lord Macleod's regiment,
which, having received strict injunction! as to the necessity of a secret and ex-
peditious march, set off towards Colonel Baillie's position, under the command
of Colonel Fletcher and Captain Baird. Hyder Ally had secret intelligence of
this movement, and sent a detachment to cut it off; but Colonel Fletcher and
Captain Baird, having fortunately conceived some suspicion of their guides, sud-
denly altered their line of march, and were thereby enabled to gain their point
Hyder was determined that Colonel Baillie, with his friends, should not advance
so safely to the main army. He therefore, with the most consummate ability,
and under his own personal inspection, prepared an ambuscade at a particular
pass through which they would have to march. This part of the road, he had
occupied and enfiladed with several batteries of cannon, behind which lay large
bodies of his best foot, while he himself, with almost his whole force, was ready
to support the attack. While these real dispositions were made, a cloud of irre-
gular cavalry was employed in several motions on the side of Conjeveram, in
order to divert the attention of the English camp.
The morning of the 10th of September had scarcely dawned, when the silent
and expectant enemy perceived Colonel Baillie's little army advancing into the
very toils planted to receive it The ambuscade reserved their fire with admi-
rable coolness and self-command, till the unhappy English were in the midst of
them. The army marched in column. On a sudden, while in a narrow defile,
a battery of twelve guns poured a storm of grape-shot into their right flank
The English faced about ; another battery immediately opened on their rear.
They had no alternative, therefore, but to advance ; other batteries met them here
likewise, and in less than half an hour, 57 pieces of cannon were so" brought to
bear on them as to penetrate into every part of the British line. By seven
o'clock in the morning, the enemy poured down upon them in thousands, and
every Englishman in the army was engaged. Captain Baird, at the head of his
grenadiers, fought with the greatest heroism. Surrounded and attacked on all
sides by 35,000 cavalry, by 30 regiments of Sepoy infantry, besides Hyder
Ally's European corps, and a numerous artillery playing upon them from all
quarters within grape-shot distance, yet this heroic column stood firm and un-
daunted, alternately facing their enemies on every side of attack. The French
officers in Hyder's camp beheld the scene with astonishment, which was increased,
when, in the midst of all this tumult and extreme peril, they saw the British
grenadiers performing their evolutions with as much precision, coolness, and
steadiness, as if under the eyes of a commander on a parade.
l Colonels Baillie and Fletcher, and K Captain Baird, had only ten pieces of
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
08 GENERAL SIfi DAVID BAIED.
cannon ; but these were so excellently ■erred, that they made great havoc
amongst the enemy. At length, after a dubious contest of three hours, (from sis
in the morning till nine,) victory began to declare for the English ; the flower
of the Mysore cavalry, after many bloody repulses, were at length entirely de-
feated with great slaughter, and the right wing, composed of Hyder 's best forces,
was thrown into disorder, and began to give way, Hyder himself was about to
give the orders for retreat, and the French officer who directed the artiller)
began to draw it off
At this moment of exultation and triumph, when British valour was just about
to reap that safety which it had so well fought for, there occurred an unlucky
accident, which entirely altered the fortune of the day. The tumbrils contain-
ing the ammunition suddenly blew up, with tuo dreadful explosions, in the
centre of the British hue. The whole face of their column was laid open, and
their artillery overturned and destroyed. 1 he destruction of men was great, but
the total loss of their ammunition was still more fatal to the survivors. Tippoo
Saib, a worthy son of his martial father, instantly saw and seized the moment of
advantage, and, without waiting for orders, fell with the utmost rapidity, at the
head of the Mogul and Cam a tic horse, into the broken square, which had not
yet time in any degree to recover its form and order. This attack by the ene-
my's cavalry being immediately seconded by the French corps, and by the first
line of infantry, determined at once the fate of our unfortunate army. After
successive prodigies of valour, the brave Sepoys were almost to a mas cut to
pieces.
Colonels Hail lie and Fletcher made one more desperate effort ; they rallied
the Europeans, and, under the fire of the whole artillery of the enemy, gained a
little eminence and formed themselves into a square. In this form, did this
invincible band, though totally without ammunition, the officers fighting only
with their swords, and tike soldiers with their bare bayonets, resist and repulse
the enemy in thirteen different attacks ; until, at length, incapable of vrithstan ris-
ing the successive torrents of fresh troops which were continually pouring upon
them, they were fairly borne down and trampled upon, many of them still con-
tinuing to fight under the very legs of the horses and elephants.
Out of about 4,000 Sepoys and BOO Europeans who had commenced this
engagement, only about $00 of the latter survived. Colonel Fletcher was among
the slain, and Captain Baird had wounds in four places. When he and Colonel
Baillio, with other captive officers, were taken before Hyder Ally, the latter
gentleman said to the barbarous chief, " Your son will inform you, that you owe
the victory to our disaster, rather than to our defeat" Hyder angrily ordered
the m from I lis presence, and commanded them instantly to prison. The slaugh-
ter among the Mysore troops was very great, amounting, it is said, to three
limes the whole British army. When Sir Hector Munroe learned the unhappy
fate of his detachment, he found it necessary to retreat to Madras.
Captain Baird, with the officers, remained in a dungeon in one of Hyder's
forts for three days and a half; he was chained by the leg to another prisoner,
as much of the slaughter in Hyder s army was attributed to the grenadiers. At
length, in July 1784, he was released, and joined his regiment at Arcot In
17 97, he removed with his regiment (now styled the 7 lit) to Bombay, and re-
ttimed to Madras next year, On the 5th of June 1789, he received the majo-
rity of the 71st, and in October obtained leave of absence, and returned to
Britain* In 1791, he returned as lieutenant-colonel of the 71st and joined the
army under the marquis CornwaLUs. As commander of a brigade of Sepoys, he
was present at the attack of a number of Droogs, or hibVforts, and at the siege
of Seringapatam, in 1791 and 1792; and likewise at the storming of Tippoo
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
n
GENERAL SIR BAVED BAIRD.
99
Sultauii** lilies and camps in the bland of Seringapatam, In I TIKI, he com*
manded a brigade of European*, and was present at the siege of Pun di cherry.
He received a colonelcy in 1795. In October 1797, he embarked at Ma-
dras with hi* regiment for Europe; in December, when he arrived at the
Cape of Good Hope, he was appointed Brigadier-general, and placed on that
statf^ in command of a brigade. June 18, 1798, he was appointed Major-gene-
ral, and returned to the stall' in India. In January 1799, he arrived at Madras,
in command ef two regiments of foot, together with the drafts of the 28 th dra-
goons. May 4, he commanded the storming party at that distinguished action, the
assault of Seringapatam ; when, in requital of hii brilliant services, he was pre-
sented by the army, through the Commander-in-chief, with the state sword of
Tippoo Sultaun, and also with a dress-sword from the field-officers serving under
his immediate command at the assault
The eminent merit of Brigadier-general Baird was now fully known and
acknowledged by the government at home. He was therefore, in 1800, ap-
pointed to the command of an expedition against Batavia, but which was after-
wards sent to Egypt. He landed at Coseir in June, crossed the desert, and,
embarking on the Nile, descended to Grand Cairo ; whence he set oat for Alex-
andria, which he reached a few days before it surrendered to General Hutchison.
Next year he led the Egyptian Indian army overland to India, where he was
concerned in various military transactions, Hi§ services, however, being soon
after superseded by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards the illustrious protector of
Europe), he sailed tor Britain with his stafT, March 1803, and after a tedious
voyage, during which he was taken prisoner by a French privateer, hut after-
wards retaken, he arrived in England in November.
Sir David Baird was received at the British court with great distinction. In
December, he received the royal permission to wear the Turkish order of the
Crescent. In June, 1 804, he received the honour of knighthood ; and on the
1 *lli of August following became a knight companion of the Bath* With the
increased rank of lieutenant-general, he commanded an expedition which sailed
in October 1805, for the Cape of Good Hope. Landing there, January 6, 1606,
he attacked and beat the Dutch army, and on the 18th received the surrender
of the colony. Being recalled, he arrived in Britain, April 1807, and was
shifted from the colonelcy of the 5 Ith, which he had held for some years, to
that of tlie 24th, and placed on the foreign staff under General Lord Cathcart
He commanded a division at the siege of Copenhagen, where he wns twice
slightly wounded ; and returned with the army in November,
After a short period of service in Ireland, Sir David sailed in command of an
armament of 10,000 men for Corunna, where he arrived in November 180*,
and formed a junction with the army under General Sir John Moore, He com-
manded the tirst division of that army, and in the battle of Corunna, January
16, 1809, he lost his left arm.
By the death of Sir John Moore in this action, Sir David succeeded to the
chief command, and had the honour of communicating intelligence of the victory
to government On this occasion, he received for the fourth time in his life
the thanks of parliament, and, April 13, was created a baronet, with very hon-
ourable armorial bearings allusive to the transactions of his life. After this
period, he never again appeared in active service. Id 1810, he married Miss
Preston Campbell, of Femtower and Lochlane, Perthshire, by whom he left no
issue. In 1814, he was promoted to the rank of General, and in 1819 became
governor of Kinsale in Ireland, and in 1827, of Fort George in the north of
Scotland. This brave veteran died at an advanced age, August 18, 1829, at
his seat of Ferntower in Perthshire, His lady, who survived him till 1847, erected
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
1687 A
100 WALTER BALCANQUEI* D.D.
a monument to hit memory on the (op of a romantic hill, named, Tom-na-
chaistel, (t. e. the hill of the castle,) in the neighbourhood of Perntower.
BALCANQUEL, Walter, D.D. an eminent divine of the seventeenth century,
was the son of the Rev. Walter Balcanquel, who was a minister of Edinburgh for
forty-three years, and died in August, 1616. Dr Walter Balcanquel was horn
at Edinburgh. It has been supposed that he was himself a minister of Edin-
burgh ; but probably the writer who makes this statement only mistakes him for
his lather, who bore the same name. He entered a bachelor of divinity at Pem-
broke Hall, Oxford, where, September 8th, 1611, he was admitted a fellow.
He appears to have enjoyed the patronage and friendship of King James, and
his first preferment was to be one of the royal chaplains. In 16 17, he became
Master of the Savoy in the Strand, London ; which office, however, he soon after
resigned in favour of Mark Antony de Domini*, archbishop of Spalatro, who
came to England on account of religion, and became a candidate for the king's
favour. In 1618, Dr Balcanquel was sent to the celebrated synod of Dart, as
one of the representatives of the church of Scotland. He has given an account
of a considerable part of the proceedings of this grand religious council, in a
series of letters to Sir Dudley Carleton, which are to be found in " The Qoldeu
Remains of the ever memorable Mr John Hales of Eaton, 4to. 1673." In
1621, the Archbishop of Spalatro having resigned the mastership of the Savoy,
Dr Balcanquel was re-appointed ; and on the 13th of March, 1624, being then
doctor of divinity, he was installed Dean of Rochester. George Heriot, at his
death, February 12th, 1624, ordained Dr Balcanquel to be one of the three
executors of his last will, and to take the principal charge of the establishment
of his hospital at Edinburgh. Probably, the experience which he had already
acquired in the management of the Savoy Hospital might be the chief cause of
his being selected for this important duty. Heriot appointed Dr Balcanquel, by
his will, " to repair, with all the convenience he can, after my decease, to the town
of Edinburgh," in order to conclude with the magistrates about the business of
the hospital ; allowing him, for his pains, in addition to the sum of one hundred
merks, which he enjoyed as an ordinary executor, one hundred pounds sterling,
payable by two equal instalments — the first three months after the decease of the
testator, and the second at the completion of the hospital.
Dr Balcanquel is entitled to no small commendation for the able manner in
which he discharged this great and onerous trust The Statutes, which, in terms
of the testator's will, were drawn up by him, are dated 1627, and do great
credit to his sagacity and practical good sense. 1
1 They conclude with the following adjuration to the magistrates and clergy of Edinburgh,
who were designed in all time coming to be the managers of the hospital ; a piece of com-
position, calculated, we should think, by its extraordinary solemnity and impressiveness, in
hare all the effect which could be expected, from connecting the obligations of the trustees with
the sanctions of religion :—
* And now, finally, I, the unworthy servant of God, Walter Pnlcanquel,the composer of
these Statutes, do onerate and charge the consciences of you, the Lord Provost, Magistrates,
and Ministry, and Council of the city of Edinburgh, and of all those who shall be your suc-
cessors, unto the second coming of the Son of God, and that by the bowels of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who one day will come to judge the quick and the dead, and take a particular
account of every one of you, for this particular stewardship, wherewith you are trusted ; by
the seal and honour of. our reformed religion, which by this pious work of the founder, is
Illustrated and vindicated from the calumnies of the adversaries to our holy profession,by that
pious respect which you, his fellow-citizens, ought to carry to the pious memory and last will
of the religious founder, your worthy citizen, George Heriot. And, lastly, for the clearing
ef your own consciences, and your own particular accounts in the great day of the Lord, let
none of you, who read these presents, nor your successors, who in after ages shall come to
read them, offer to frustrate the pious Founder of his holy Intention, either by taking; direct-
ly or indirectly, from this hospital, any thing which he, in his piety, hath devoted unto it,
or by altering it, or bestowing it upon any other use, though you shall conceive it to be far
Digitized by
Google
ALEXANDER BALFOUR. 101
Dr fialcanquel's next appearance m the public concerns of his native country,
was of a less happy character, in 16" 3b, when Charles I, sent down the Mar*
quia of Hamilton to Scotland, to treat with the Covenanters, the Dean of Roches-
ter accompanied his grace in the capacity of chaplain. What was his external
behaviour on thii occasion, we do not know ; but it was afterwards surmised by
the Covenanters, that he I tad been deputed by Archbishop Laud, as a spy, at
once upon the Marquis, who was suspected of moderation, and the people with
whom lie was dealing. It is asserted by Sir James Balfour, in his " Memorial!*
of State," that Dr BaJcauquel also communicated intelligence of all that happened
in Scotland, to Signor George Con, the Pope's legate, " as some of his inter-
uepted letters can heare recorde, " Early in the ensuing year, was published an
apologetical narrative of the court^proceedings, under the title of " Ills Majes-
ties Large Declaration, concerning the Late Tumults in Scotland," which, by
universal and apparently uncontradicted report, was ascribed to the pen of Dr
BalcanqiieL While this work was received by the friends of the king as a
triumphant vindication of his attempts upon the purity of the Scottish church,
it only excited new indignation in the minds of the outraged people, who soon
ifter appeared in arms at D it nee law, to defend their religious freedom with the
•word. On the 14th of May, lb3tl, at the very time when the armies were
about to meet on the borders, Dr Balcanquel, apparently in requital of has exer-
tions, was installed Dean of Durham. He had now rendered himself a marked
man to the Scottish prusbyterians, and accordingly his name is frequently alluded
to in their publications as an " incendiary." Under this character he was
denounced by the Scottish estates, July 29 , 1641, along with the Earl of Traquair,
Sir John Hay, Clerk Register, Sir Hubert Spottiswoode r and Maxwell, Bishop
nf Hoss T all of whom were regarded as the principal causes of the war between
the king and his people. In the Canterburian's Self-Conviction, a pamphlet
written in 1641, by the Rer. Robert Baillie, against Archbishop Laud, he is
spoken of in a style of such asperity, as might hare convinced him that, in the
event of a complete triumph of the preshyterian party, he would share in the
proceedings which were now directed again tt that unhappy prelate. Accordingly,
the very next year, when the king could no longer protect his partisans, Dr
Balcanquel was forced from his mastership of the Savoy, plundered, sequestered,
and obliged to Ay from London. Repairing to Oxford, he attached himself to
the precarious fortunes of hts sovereign, and for several years afterwards, had to
shift about from place to place, wherever he could And security for his life.
At length, having taken refuge in Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, he died there
in a very cold season, on Christmas day, 1045. He was buried next day in
the parish church of Chirk, where some years after a splendid monument was
erected to his memory by a neighbouring royalist, Sir Thomas Bliddleton of
Chirk Castle.
BALFOUR, Ai.kxa^deb, an esteemed miscellaneous writer, was born March
1st, 1767, in the parish of Monikie, Forfarshire* His parents belonged to the
more pious or profitable ; or to go about *o oiler any of these .Statutes and Ordinances*
after they shall be once delivered np unto you, completely subscribed and sealed, as you "ill
answer the contrary, at the uttermost of your perils, in the day of the Lord Jesus; to whom,
(being fully assured of your goodly care and zealous conscience in these particulars) with his
Father, and the Holy Ghost, three Persons, but one undivided Essence of the Godhead, as
for aN other their blessings, so hi particular for the great charity of t Ins most pious end re-
ligious founder, bo ascribed, m Is most due, at] praise, honour, and glory, from age to age,
Amen/ 1
tt Is alleged, by traditionary report, that the taste of Dr Balcanquel is conspicuous in the
external architecture of Herioi'i Hospital. He is s:tid, in particular, to have directed thnt
anomalous contrariety of ornamente which ts observed in the windows of the building; *
blemish, however, affecting only the details, and not the general effect of the building.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
102
ALEXANDER BALFOUR.
b ambler rural class. His education was very limited, and be was apprenticed at so
early age to a weaver. His first attempts at composition were made when be was
twelve years of age. At a somewhat maturer age be contributed verses to a newspaper
named the " British Chronicle," to Dr Anderson's "Bee," and to several provincial
miscellanies. At 1 twenty-six be became clerk to a manufacturing bouse in Arbroath,
and married in the following year. From the Arbroath establishment, in which be
bad for several years been a partner, he removed, in 1814, to Trottick near Dundee,
where be formed a connection with a branch of an extensive London house. In the
ensuing year, to memorable for calamity in the commercial world, the house in which
tie had embarked hie fortune was suddenly involved in bankruptcy. Till some better
employment should occur to him, Balfour resorted to the pen, which had never been
altogether laid aside in his busiest and most prosperous days, and, in 1819, be produced
a novel entitled, " Campbell, or the Scottish Probationer," which was received hy
the public in a favourable manner. While the work was in progress, he accepted
of a dependent situation at Balgonie in Fife, the emoluments of which were barely
sufficient to maintain a family consisting of a wife, two sons, and three daughters.
He was at length induced to remove to Edinburgh, where, in 1818, he obtained
employment as a clerk from Air Blackwood the publisher. II is health suffered from
constant confinement to the desk, and in June, IS 10, be was obliged to relinquish
his employment by a threatened attack of paralysis. For ten years after the month
of October, he was unable to set his foot upon the ground, and spent his days in a
wheel-chair. He was, nevertheless, enabled to devote himself, with unimpaired
energy, to literary labour. He edited, in 1819* the poetical works of his deceased
friend, Richard Gall, adding a biographical preface ; and contributed various articles
of merit, consisting of tales, sketches, and poems, descriptive of Scottish rural lite,
to Constable's Edinburgh Magazine, of which he continued one of the chief literary
supporters till its close, in 182G. In this magazine appeared the poetical series,
entitled, " Characters omitted in Crabbe'a Parish Register," which was afterwards
published in a separate volume. In 1S"20, be published a volume, under the title of
" Contemplation, and other Poems/' In 1823 he began to contribute novels to the
so-called Minerva Press, his first work being, " The Foundling of Olentborn, or the
Smuggler's Cave," a tale in three volumes* Amidst the pangs of his disorder, Mr*
Balfour continued to enjoy such good general health, that he is said to have not
been absent from his family breakfast- table more than twelve times during the long
period often years. He slept regularly, and generally was able to spend twelve or
fourteen hours each day in study and composition. Ilia eyesight waa as good, and
his intellectual powers continued as vigorous as at any period of his lite ; hut hit
feelings were morbidly sensitive, and he had little command over their expression.
In the year 182 f, through the intervention, it is believed, of Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P„
who presented a number of Mr Balfour's works to the premier, Mr Canning, a treasury
donation of one hundred pounds was obtained for this unfortunate son of genius.
The latest considerable work of Mr Balfour was a novel, entitled, " Highland
Mary/' in four volumes. It is written with great simplicity and taste, and, as a
storyt is replete with a mournful pathos. He continued to the last to contribute to
the periodical works of the day.
He enjoyed bis usual health, till the 1st of September, 1829, when an illness
commenced that hurried him to the grave. For some days previous to his death,
he was deprived of speech, and communicated with his friends by means of an
alphabet which he had occasionally used before. He died, September 12th, 1629 f
in the sixty-third year of bis age, A memoir of Balfour was written by the late
Mr Moir, of Musselburgh (" Delta Jl ) f and prefixed to a posthumous volume of his
remains, published under the title of Weeds and Wildtfowers.
Digitized by
Google
SIR ANDREW BALFOUR, BART., MB 103
BALFOUR, (Sir) Andmcw, Bart MJX who iirst introduced the dissection or the
human body into Scotland, and that at a very superstitious period ; who pro-
jected the tirst hospital in the country, for the relief of disease and poverty at
the public expense ; who was the founder of the botanic garden at Edinburgh,
and almost the lather of the science in Scotland; who planned the royal
college of physicians at Edinburgh ; and bequeathed to the public a museum,
which at that time would have been an ornament to any university , or any me-
tropolis, — was the fifth and youngest son of Sir Michael Balfour of Denmiiue in
Fife, and was born at that place on the 18th of January, 1630. He prosecuted
his studies in the university of St Andrews, where he took his degree of A- M-
At this period his education was superintended by bis brother Sir James Balfour,
the famous antiquary, and lion king at arms to Charles L, who was about thirty
year* older than himself At college lie first discovered his attachment to botany,
which in him is said to have led to the study of physic, instead of being, as it
generally is, a handmaid to that art Quitting the university about the year
1 G 50, he removed to London, where his medical studies were chiefly directed by
the celebrated Harvey, by Sir Theodore Mayeme, the distinguished physician of
king James L, and various other eminent practitioners. He afterwards travelled
to Rlois in France, and remained there fur some time, to see the botanic garden
of the Duke of Orleans, which was then the best in Europe, and was kept by his
countryman Dr Hi orison. Here he contracted a warm friendship for that great
boUnist, which continued unimpaired while they lived. From Blois he went
to Paris, where, for a long time, he prosecuted his medical studies with great
ardour. He completed his education at the university of Caen, from which he
received the degrees of bachelor and doctor of physic, on the 20th of September,
L6G1.
Returning to London soon afterwards, Dr Balfour was introduced to Charles
1L, who named him as the most proper person to attend the young earl of Ro-
chester on his continental travels. After an absence of four years, be returned
with his pupil in 1607. During their tour he endeavoured, and at that time
not without some appearance of success, to recall that abandoned young noble-
man to the paths of virtue, and to inspire him with the love of learning. Ro*
Chester himself often acknowledged, and to Bishop Burnet, in particular, onl)
three days before his death, how much ho was bound to love and honour Dr Bal
four, to whom, next to his parents, he thought he owed more than to all the world.
On returning to his native country, Balfour sett ted at St Andrews as a physi-
cian. " He brought with hi in,* 7 says Dr Walker, in bis Essays on Natural His-
tory, "the best library, especially in, medicine and natural history, that had till
then appeared in Scotland ; and not only these, but a perfect knowledge of the
languages in which they were written ; likewise many unpublished manuscripts
of learned men, a aeries of antique medals, modern medallions, and pictures and
busts, to form the painter and the architect ; the remarkable arms, vestments, and
ornaments of foreign countries ; numerous mathematical, philosophical, and sur-
gical instruments, which he uot only possessed, but used ■ with operations in sur~
gery, till then unknown in this country ; a complete cabinet with all the simples
of the materia uicdica, and new compositions in pharmacy ; and large collections
of the fossils, plants, and animals, not only of the foreign countries he traversed,
but of the most distant parts of the world. 1 '
Dr Balfour's merit was too conspicuous to sutler him to remain long at St An-
drews. In the year 1670, he removed to Edinburgh, where he immediately
came into great practice. Here, among other improvements, he prosecuted the
manufacture of paper, and was the means of introducing that valuable art into
the country — though for many years it remained in a state of complete, or nearly
Digitized by
Google
104 SIR ANDREW BALFOUR, BART., MJ).
complete dormancy ; the people deriving stationary article* of all kinds from
Holland, Adjoining to his house, he had a small botanic garden, which be fur-
nished by the seeds he received from his foreign correspondents ; and in this
garden he raised many plants which were then first introduced into Scotland.
One of his fellow-labourers in this department was Patrick Murray of Livingston,
whom he had initiated into the study of natural history. This young gentleman,
who enjoyed an ample fortune, formed at his seat in the country a botanic gar-
den, containing one thousand species of plants, which at that period was a very
large collection. He traversed the whole of France in quest of the plants of
that country ; and on his way to Italy, he prematurely died of a fever. Soon
after his death, Dr Balfour transferred his collection from Livingston to Edin-
burgh ; and with it, joined to his own, he had the merit of laying the foundation
of die public botanic garden. The necessary expense of this new institution
was at first defrayed by Dr Balfour, Sir Robert Sibbald, and the Faculty of Ad-
vocates. But at length the city allotted a piece of ground near Trinity College
Church for a public garden, and out of the revenues of the university, allowed a
certain sum for its support As the first keeper of this garden, Dr Balfour
selected Mr James Sutherland; who, in 1684, published a work, entitled, Hor-
tus EdinburgensU. [See Suthbrlakd.] The new institution soon became con-
siderable : plants and seeds were sent from Morison at Oxford, Watts at London,
Marchant at Paris, Herman at Leyden, and Spottiswood at Tangier. From the
last were received many African plants, which flourished in this country.
Such efforts as these, by a native Scotsman, occurring at a time when the at-
tention of the country seems to have been almost exclusively devoted to contend-
ing systems of church-government, are truly grateful in the contemplation. It
is only to be lamented, that the spirit which presided over them, was premature
in its appearance ; it found no genial field to act upon, and it was soon forgotten
in the prevailing distraction of the public mind* Sir Andrew Balfour was the
morning-star of science in Scotland, but he might almost be said to have set be-
fore the approach of day.
He was created a baronet by Charles IL, which •eems to indicate that, like
most men of literary and scientific character in that age, he maintained a senti-
ment of loyalty to the existing dynasty and government, which was fast decaying
from the public mind at large. His interest with the ministry, and with the
municipality of Edinburgh, seems to have always been considerable, and was uni-
formly exerted for the public good, and for the encouragement of merit.
Upon his settlement in Edinburgh, he had found the medical art taught in a
very loose and irregular manner. In or^er to place it on a more respectable
footing, he planned, with Sir Robert Sibbald, the royal college of physicians ;
and of that respectable society his brethren elected him the first president.
When the college undertook the publication of a Pharmacopeia, the whole ar-
rangement of the materia medica was committed to his particular care. For
such a task he was eminently qualified by his skill in natural history. This per-
formance made its appearance in 1685 ; and, in the opinion of Dr Cullen, it is
superior to any Pharmacopeia of thai era.
Not long before his decease, his desire to promote the science of medicine in
his native country, joined to the universal humanity of his disposition, led him
to project the foundation of an hospital in Edinburgh. The institution was at
first narrow and confined, but it survived to be expanded into full shape, as the
royal infirmary, under the care of George Drummond. Sir Andrew died
in 1694, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, after a severe conflict with the
gout and other painful disorders ; which afforded him an opportunity of display-
ing upon the approach of death; those virtues and that equanimity, which had
Digitized by
Google
SIB JiMES BALFOUR,
105
distinguished him during his life. His person, like his mind and manners, was
elegant He was possessed of a handsome figure with a pleasing and expressive
countenance ; of a graceful elocution * and, by his natural disposition, as well as
his long intercourse with the higher ranks in society, of a most courteous and
polite demeanour. A print of him was executed at Paris ; but no copy is known
to exist.
His library and museum were the anxious result of fourteen years of travelling,
and between twenty and thirty more of correspondence. For their accommoda
lion, he had built an addition to his house when he had nearly arrived at his for*
tieth year ; but after the building was completed, he found himself so infirm as
to be unable to place them in that Order which he intended. After his death,
his library, consisting of about three thousand volumes, besides manuscripts, was
sold, we suppose, by public auction. There is a printed catalogue still extant
His museum was deposited in the hail which was, till 1829, occupied as the uni-
versity library. There it remained many years, use Less and neglected ; some
parts of it falling to inevitable decay, and other parts being abstracted. * l Yet,
eren after 1750," says Dr Walker, "it still continued a considerable collection,
which I have good reason to remember, as it was the sight of it, about that time,
that first inspired me with an attachment to natural history. Soon after that
period," to pursue a narrative so deeply disgraceful to the age and the institu-
tion referred to, (1 it was dislodged from the hall where it had been long kept ;
was thrown aside, and exposed as lumber ; was further and further dilapidated,
and at length almost completely demolished. In the year 1762, out of its mini
and rubbish I extracted many pieces still valuable and useful* and placed them
here in the best order I could* These, 1 hope, may remain lung, and be consi*
d tired as so many precious relics of one of the best and greatest men this country
has produced. 11
From the account that has been given of Sir Andrew Balfour, every person
conversant in natural history or medicine must regret that he never appeared as
an author* To his friend, Mr Murray of Livingston, be addressed a series of
familiar letters, for the direction of his researches white abroad. These letters,
forming the only literary relict of Balfour, were subsequently published by bis son,
ia the year 1700.
BALFDUK, (Sir) James, an eminent lawyer and public character of the sixteenth
century, was a son of Balfour of Monqubanny, iu File, a very ancient fruuily. In
youth, being designed for the church, he made considerable proficiency, not only
in ordinary literature, but in the study of divinity and law; which were all alike
necessary in those times for an ecclesiastic, on account cf the mixed character
which the age admitted to be assumed by such individuals. Balfour, wliilc still
a young man, was so unfortunate as to join with the conspirators who, after assas-
sinating Cardinal Beaton , held out the castle of St. Andrews Against the governor
Arran. He seems, however, not to have been a very cordial padiian of the con-
spirators. John Knox, in his own vigorous and plain-spoken manner, styled him the
IJ?atphemo\tM Hii T foztr 9 on account: of his having refused to communicate along with
bis reforming associates, Balfour shared the fiite of his companions in being
sent to tbe French galleys- and was confined in the same vessel along with Knox,
from which he escaped in 1550, along with the rest, by the tacit permission of the
French government.
* Tha following nnecdote of Balfour in connexion with Knox is related hy Dr M'Cria
,k The gaiters returned t» Scotland in summer 1548* m near as J can collect, and continued
for a consi derail I o lime on the east coast, to wnich for rJn^ltah vessels Knox's health was
now greatly impoirnJ by the severity of his confinement, and he was seined with a fever,
durhig which hi- lite s*u> despaired of by all in Lhe ship. Rtri even in this state, his fort}-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
106
SIR JAMES BALFOUR.
Balfour items to hare afterwards joined in the proceedings of the Reformers,
but only with courtier-like temperance, and without exhibiting much seal in the
Protestant cause. He was preferred to the ecclesiastical appointment of official of
Lothian, and afterwards became rector of Flisk, a parish in his native county.
In 1668, he was appointed by Queen Mary to be a Lord of Session, the court then
being composed partly of churchmen, and partly of laics. In 1564, when the
Commissary court was instituted in place of the ecclesiastical tribunal, which had
been dissolved at the Reformation, Balfour became one of the four commissaries,
with a salary of four hundred merks, while the others had only three hundred. In
July, 1565, the Queen extended the further favour of admitting him into her privy
council.
Balfour was one of those servants of the state, who, being advanced rather on
account of merit than birth, used at all times to giro great offence to the Scottish
nobility. It seems to hare never been supposed by this haughty class, that there
was the least necessity for ingenious or faithful service in the officials employed
by majesty ; birth and following were the only qualifications allowed by them
to be of any value. Accordingly, it is not surprising to find that the same conspi-
racy which overthrew the M kinless " adventurer Rhario, contemplated the destruc-
tion of Balfour. He was so fortunate, however, as to escape, and even derived
some advantage from the event, being promoted to the office of clerk-register, in
room of Mr James Macgill, who was concerned in the conspiracy. He was also
about this time made a knight, and appointed to be one of the commissioners
for revising, correcting, and publishing the ancient laws and statutes of the
kingdom.
in the beginning of the year 1567, Sir James Balfour was appointed gover-
nor of Edinburgh castle. In this important situation, he naturally became an
object of great solicitude to the confederate lords, who, in the ensuing May, com-
menced a successful rebellion against Queen Mary. It would appear that Sir
James was not now more loyal than many other persons who had experienced
the favour of Mary. He is said to have even been the means of throwing into
the hands of the confederates that celebrated box of letters, upon which they en-
deavoured to ground the proof of her guilt There can be no doubt that he
was at this time in the way of receiving high favours from the Earl of Murray,
who was the chief man opposed to the dethroned queen. He was, in September,
1567, admitted by Murray a lord of his privy council, and made commendator
of the priory of Pittenweem ; and in December, a bargain was accomplished, by
which he agreed to accept a pension of L.500 and the presidency of the Court
of Session, in lieu of the clerk-registry, which Murray wished to be restored to
his friend J^facgili Sir James continued faithful to the party which opposed
Queen Mary, till the death of Murray, January, 1569-70, when he was in some
measure compelled to revert to the Queen's side, on account of a charge prefer
red against him by the succeeding Regent, Lennox, who taxed him with a share
in the murder of Darnley. For this accusation no proof was ever adduced, but
tude of mind remained unsubdued, and he comforted his fellow-prisoners with hopes of re-
lease. To their anxious desponding inquiries, natural to men in their situation, »lf he
thought they would ever obtain their liberty, 1 his uniform answer was, * God will deliver us
to his glory, even in this life.' While they lay on the coast between Dundee and St An-
drews, Mr (afterwards Sir) James Balfour, who was confined in the same ship, desired him
to look at the land and see if he knew it Though at that time very sick, he replied, ' Yes-,
1 know it well, for I see the steeple of that place where God first opened my mouth in pub-
lic to his glory : and I am fully persuaded, how weak soever 1 now appear, that I shall not
depart this life till that my tongue shall glorify his godly name in the same place.' This
sinking reply Sir James repeated in the presence of many witnesses, a number of years
before Knox returned to Scotland, and when there was very little prospect of his words be-
in* verified." Life of A'nox, 1st edit. ;>. 53.
Digitized by
Google
SIB JAMES BALFOUK.
107
even allowing Sir James to bare been guilty, it will only add another to the
list of great men coneerned in the transaction, and show the more clearly how
neither learning, rank, official dignity, nor any other ennobling qualification,
prevented a man in those days from staining his hands with blood. Balfour
outlived Lennox, and was serviceable in bringing about the pacification between
the King's and Queen's party, under Morton, in 1 573. He would appear to have
been encouraged by Morton in the task of revising the laws of the country, which
he at length completed in a style allowed at that time to be most masterly. Mor-
ton afterwards thought proper to revive the charge brought by Lennox against
Sir James, who was consequently obliged to retire to France, where he lived for
some years. He returned in 1580, and revenged the persecution of Morton,
by producing against him, on his trial, a deed to which he had acceded, in com-
mon with others of the Scottish nobility, alleging Bothwell's innocence of the
King's murder, and recommending him to the Queen as a husband. Sir James
died before the 14th of January, 1583-4.
The Practicks of Scots Law, compiled by Sir James Balfour of Pittendreich,
president of the Court of Session, continued to be used and consulted in manu-
script, both by students and practitioners, till nearly a century after his decease,
when it was for the first time supplanted by the Institutes of Lord Stair. Even
alter that event, it was held as a curious repertory of the old practices of Scottish
law, besides fulfilling certain uses not answered by the work of Lord Stair. It
was therefore printed in 1754, by the Ruddimans, along with an accurate bio-
graphical preface by Walter Goodal. The work was of considerable service
io Dr Jamieson in his Dictionary of the Scottish language.
BALFOUR, (Sib) Jambs, an eminent antiquary, herald, and annalist, was
born about the close of the sixteenth century. He was the eldest son of a small
Fife laird, Michael Balfour of Denmylne, who derived his descent from James,
son of Sir John Balfour of Balgarvy, a cadet l of the ancient and honourable
house of Balfour of Balfour in Fife. James Balfour, the ancestor of Sir
Michael, had obtained £he estate of Denmylne from James II., in the four-
teenth year of his reign, which corresponds with 1450-1. Michael Balfour, the
father of Sir James, and also of Sir Andrew, whose life has been already com-
memorated, was, in the words of Sir Robert Sibbald, " equally distinguished for
military bravery and civil prudence." He bore the honourable office of Comp-
troller of the Scottish Household, in the reign of Charles L, and in 1630 was
knighted, at Holyrood house, by George, Viscount Dupplin, Chancellor of Scot-
land, under his Majesty's special warrant This eminent personage was, by
Jean Durham, daughter of James Durham of Pitkerrow, the father of Ore sons,
all of whom attained to distinction in public life, besides nine daughters, who
all formed honourable alliances, except two, who died unmarried. He lived to
see three hundred of his own descendants ; a number which his youngest son,
Sir Andrew, lived to see doubled.
Sir Michael Balfour gave his eldest son an education suitable to the extended
capacity which he displayed in his earliest years. This education, of which the
fruits are apparent in his taste and writings, was accompanied by a thorough
initiation into the duties of religion, as then professed on a presbyterian
modeL The genius of the future antiquary was first exhibited in a turn for
poetry, which was a favourite study among the scholars of that period, even
where there was no particular aptitude to excel in its composition, but for which
1 This branch was ennobled in 1607, in the person of Michael Balfour of Balgarvy, who,
having served King James in several embassies to the principal courts of Europe, was
created Lord Balfour of Burleigh. This peerage was attainted in consequence of the con-
cern of its occupant in the civil war of 1715.
Digitized by
Google
103
SIR JAME3 BALFOUR.
Sir James Balfour appear* to bare had a genuine taste, Hi* jure u tie proficiency
in verification is thus alluded to by the poet Leoch, or Leoctraus, in hi* Siren* f
published In 1626, of which that entitled Jamu i* dedicated GtmeroMO Juvati
Jacobo Balfour io Kincardio i
Hiuictu carminibus const rid am* Jacobe, La tin is
Coge tmn uumeri* f quo* Mu-sa Caledonia upuv,
Et nalum tibi ; nam tu quoque Scotica Siren.
Panthea nostra tu est ita culm ItrLa Brilanno,
lit meltora tnea, *i quid queat esse* PueLla.
It appeari that Balfour, who cultivated Scottish vernacular poetry, had success-
fully translated Leoch's Latin poem, entitled, Panther into that ftyle of verse ;
therefore the Latin 1st says —
Namque ut pulchra satis, mi nut est men Panthea casta ;
Quum noil puJchra minus, et tua casta magis-
Sjt Robert Sibbald in form* ui that he had seen a volume containing Latin and
Scottish poems by Sir James Balfour, which, however, is now lost In iti
absence, the taste at least of the youthful antiquary for poetical objects of con-
temp bi tion, is evinced by the following letter, extracted from a transcribed col-
lection of his epistle* in the Advocate** Library at Edinburgh. It is addressed
to Lord Klcho, but has do date*
My Lord,
Ye aske of my health and qufiat I am ahoutc- I make a ret time, by that rill
issewing from the ocean of your love^ that I am now taken with the plesur of the
fie 1 iles, and delyght als much in my retelred quietnes from out of the city, ats your
lordship does to find a drag going cole at Cameron, 1 for as that promises you for your
pain* riches, so does this to me healthful houres t mid bountiful recreations with the
Muses, quhen as T often feid my eiyes with the fruitful usery of my winter labors,
much rejoysiug that with healthful prosperity, you should remember your poorest
fre tndes. Oulcy let me pleid for my bypast silence, since * I have nothing to wreatt
but foolries, which I presume to be bot harsh umsicke for so wyse and weill tuned
eares. Howsoever, quhen you are most idle, will ye be bot pleased to overlook this
papefj In which, without aney mental! reservatione, I subscribe my solve, my lord,
Your lo : most faithful servant,
Balfour also appears, at an early period of bis life, to li.ive cultivated the
society of William Dnunmond of Hawthorndeu, then by far the highest poetical
name in Scotland. Probably, as none of his own pieces have escaped to poste-
rity, they were such as to render their Jos* no matter of regret : be must, however,
have possessed the sort of qualification which we have elsewhere* designated as
passive or negative poetry, that is, a keen perception and relish of the compo-
sitions of others, though perhaps destitute of the active power of creating good
poetry himsel£ This seems to be evidenced by the following letters to Drum
moral, which breathe strongly of that ardent affection, which we are apt to en-
tertain towards distinguished literary personages whose writings have made a
deep impression upon our minds.
" To Hawthornden,
" Sir,— That love I beare you hath mened me. with this passing bearir, to vreatt
thesse few lynes, content thus in haist to salut you, in doing quhereof, altho I fulfill
not the office of a frind, nevertheless I evedince the constancey of my affection. You
may therfore returne something to reid : and, if necessity urge, imitat my brevity :
1 A aal field at Cameron, in Fife.
* See Lift) of treorjje BannALyno,
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
SIR JAMES BALFOUR. 109
altho I be bewitched with the neatness of your pieces, yet, finding heir in my selve
conscious, I daire hardly be bold to crave a quholl sheitt of you ; howsoever, I will
be yours quhill I am " Ja : Balfoue."
u TO THE SAME,
" Sir, — You desyre of me quholl sheitts, I must confess a symboll of our inteirest
affections. Bot I, conscious of my own imbecility, rather prove a Laconick. No
wounder altho my vaine be stopt, since this longe tyme you have not lanced it, aither
with the raiding of some of your pieces, or with so much as with a lyne of your hand.
Whence, then, is it that you should become such a usurer to him that has not receved
so long aney leamid annuity of you. Your starrie Urania, on the wings of a strong
wind,' flees by us, in every ones handes : quherfor, I intreid you, wold you have me
deprived of it? Have you thought me dead to the Muses, that aither I could not
judge of it, or so dull that I could not praise it In so doing, you have dirogatt much
from my genius, and daily conversatione. Nevertheless, in despight of your inter-
dictione, I have gained a sight of it I wold conoeill my thoughts with silence. I
wold be revenged, if the admiratione of your writtings did not breke all sense of
injury ; and though you scatter abroad your pieces (yet ceasse not to love me,) I sail
enjoy them, though by the bountifull hand of ane other. Faire ye weill."
The poetical temperament of Sir James, and the courtly grace which generally
is, and ever ought to be the accompaniment of that character, is further shown
in the following epistle to a lady, which we consider a very elegant specimen of
the English prose of the age of Charles L, and, indeed, singularly so, when the
native country of the writer is considered : —
" To a Lady roa a Friend,
** Madam, — You must appardone me if* after the remembring of my best love to
you, I should rander you hartly thanks for your affectione, since thankes are the best
knowen blossomes of the hartes strongest desyres. I never, for my pairt, doubtit of
your affectione, bot persuadit myselve that so good a creature could never prove
unconstant, and altho the fairest dayes may have some stormy overshadowings, yet I
persuade myselve that these proceids not from heavenly thinges, bot from vapors
arising from below, and though they for a tyme conte [ract] the sun's heat, yet make
they that heat in the end to be more powerfulL J hope your friends sail have all
the contentment that layes in my power to gif them : And, since Malice itselve can
not judge of you bot noblie, I wisch that tyme make your affectione als constant, as
my harte sail ever prove, and remaine loyall ; and lest I seime to weirey you more*
than myselve, again I must beg pardone for all my oversights (if you think of aney)
wich will be a rare perfectione of goodness in you to forgive freely, and love con-
stantly him quhosse greatest happmes under heaven is always to leive and die
" Your trewly affectionat servant"
Sir James teems to have spent some of the years subsequent to 1626 in foreign
countries, where he is said to have improved himself much by observing the man*
nan of nations more polished than that to which he himself belonged, and by
forming the acquaintance of eminent literary men. At the close of his conti-
nental travels, he spent some time in London, and obtained the friendship of
the distinguished antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton, and also of Sir William Segar,
Garter King at Arms. He had now turned his attention to the study of herald*
ry, and the friendship of these men, which he obtained rather through the
intense sympathy produced by a common taste for rare pursuits, than by the
recommendations of others, was of material service in the completion of what
might be called his professional education. He also contracted a literary ac-
quaintance with Roger Dodsworth, and Sir William Dugdale, to whom he com*
Digitized by
Google
110
SIR JAMES BALH)U!L
municatad several charters and other piecet of information regarding Scottwt*
ecclesiastical antiquities, which they attach to tlietr Montoticon Anghcawvn
under the title, Ccenohia Scotica, and which Sir Jamas afterward* expanded
into a distinct volume, under the title, Mmuuiicoa Scotiaim, though, as Bishop
Nicholson ha* remarked, it looked more like an index to such a work than Uie
complete work itself. The friendship of Sir William Segar appear* to have been
of considerable influence in the direction of Balfour's coui*e of life. He exerted
himself to conciliate to hia Scottish protegG, the respect of the college of heralds;
and hia efforts were crowned with such success, that* in 1G38, that body pre-
sented to Balfour the following honourable diplomat .
"To all and singular to whom thir presents shall come, Greeting: Sir Wil-
liam Segar, Sir Richard St George, and Sir John Barrotighe, Garter, Clarentius,
and Norroy, Kings of Arms ; William Penson, Lancaster; Sir Henry St George,
Richmond, etc According to the Laudable custome of nations, not to conceill
that honour which is due to rerteu and learning, We doe testifie and bear* record,
that James Balfour, Esq, by and attour his insicht and knowledge in diverse
languages, has also singular good experience and knowledge in all antiquities
and forraine histories, but especial! in these concerning the iliand of Great Bri-
tain and Irland ; as also we fcestilie and does Fitness him to be ane expert and
graduate herauld, in blazing of cotts and armories, in inventing of cre&ta and
supporters, in searching of genealogies and discents, in marshalling of finieralls,
triumphs and inaugurations, etc and in all ceremonies whatsoever pertaining to
honour or armes. In witnes of the premisses, we above named, kings of armes,
herauld\ and puree vants, hes to this our present testificate and approbation e,
with the several cotts of our armes, affixed our manuall subscriptions, at our
office of anues in the ctttie of London, Oct. 3, and Dec 4 r 1628,"
Besides these antiquarian friends, Balfour secured several others of a more
courtly complexion, who were natives of his own country. He enjoyed the
friendship of Sir Robert Ayfcoun, tlie poetical courtier, with whom he afterwards
became distantly connected by marriage. He was also on the most familiar
terms with another poetical attendant on the elegant court of Charles I. — the
Earl of Stirling. 5 His chief patron, however, was George, Viscount Dupplin,*
* We quote from hi ft correspondence in the Advocates* Library, the tire following letters
to this distinguished nobleman ; —
To MY LOKD VjlCOUWT QF StAEV E LI * G, FrINCIPAM, S*CaKTAaT QT SCUTLAWQ.
■ My Lord, — 1 I ova your letters, becausse ihvy bring with them still soma mat:er of glad-
ness. The retribution of your innumerable favors to me, an* a few naked lynen, which, by
the generosity of your noble mynd, are at* mut'h in esteeme with you w riches are te the
most miserable wo rid- mongers. According to your Lordship's command, I have, by my
letters, humbly rand red thanks to the Kingis MojeMie, my master, altho ordnardly (Uvea
in homely ru&att, yet doubled with the best tlssgw, and full of the strong desire* of ana
ardent attectione, quhllks, at the reidiiign your guodnea will extend one word of unanimiiv
with rnt', and *.} iiipathire with thir grutulalions as a pat rone of iheir master: Then salt
your lordship find that your favors hes heme pun up me ane quho will evar be mynrffuL of
the least of them, and remains a daily beads man fur the further increase of your health
arid honour. Fair Weill, my lord.
Halyroodhouss, this 7 of March, 1631*
To Tiir Sams,
My werrev noblo good Lord, — Thii bearlr, my ftind, aa f n a eure sanctuary, easts him-
solve in the nossame of your patrociney ; a man every way worthy of your respect ; by pro-
fession a lover of nobility ; quhosse ingenious spirit and modest cariage betters bis stock.
If jour lordship suspects my rccomineiidattono as partial J, hes obsequious cadage and wor-
thy pairUi, after your trial), will make all good: So wishing your lordship all happiness,
heir and for ever, I will live and die, Your lordship,
J a : BALFOUfc,
Ed. 12 Mail, 1631,
* Afterwards created JEarl of Kiimoul,on the occasion of the coronation of King Chartei
it Edinburgh in lbtt3. Sir Junva Balfour relates the following curious anecdote of Lis
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
SIR JAMBS BALFOUR. m
who held the high and almost rice-regal office of Chancellor of Scotland. By
the recommendation of this nobleman, aided by his own excellent qualifications,
he wai created by Charles I., Lord Lion King at Arms, a dignified legal office
in Scotland, in which resides the management of all matters connected with ar-
morial honours, as also all public ceremonials. Sir Jerome Lyndsay having pre-
viously resigned the office, Balfour was crowned and installed at Holyroodhouse,
Jane 15, 1630, having in the preceding month been invested with the necessary
honour of knighthood by the king. On this occasion, Lord Dupplin officiated
as Royal Commiswoner.
Sir James Balfour now settled in Scotland, in the enjoyment of his office.
On the 21st of October, he was married to Anna Alton, daughter of Sir John
Aiton of that Ilk, and in January, 1631, he obtained, in favour of himself and
his spouse, a grant of the lands and barony of Kinnaird in Fife. In December,
1633, he was created a baronet by Charles I., probably in consequence of the
able manner in which he marshalled the processions and managed the other
ceremonials of the royal visit that year. At this period of peace and prosperity,
a number of learned and ingenious men were beginning to exert themselves in
Scotland. It was a peaceful interval between the desolating civil wars of the
minority of King James, and the equally unhappy contest which was soon after
incited by religious and political dissentions. Like soldiers enjoying themselves
during a truce, the people were beginning to seek for and cultivate various
sources of amusement in the more elegant arts. This was the era of Jamieson,
the painter — of Drummond, the poet— of the geographer Pont — and the histo-
rians Spottiswood, Calderwood, Johnston, and Hume. 6 Sir James Balfour, in-
spired with the common spirit of these men, commenced the writing of history,
with as much seal as could be expected in an age, when, the printing of a written
work being a comparatively rare occurrence, literature might be said to want the
greater part of its temptations.
Sir James, as already mentioned, had been bred a strict Presbyterian. In
this profession he continued to the last, notwithstanding that, in politics, he was
an equally firm royalist In a letter to a young nobleman, [Correspondence,
Advocate*' Library,'] he is found advising a perusal of " Calvine, Besa, Parens,
and Whittaker," as " orthodox writers." When the introduction of the liturgy
imposed by Charles I. roused Scotland from one end to the other in a fit of
righteous indignation, Sir James Balfour, notwithstanding his connection with
the government, joined cordially with his countrymen, and wrote an account of
the tumult of the 23rd of July, under the burlesque title of " Stoneyfield Day." 6
lordship. The King, in 1086, had commanded, by a letter to his Privy Council, that the
Archbishop of St Andrews should have precedence of the Chancellor. To this his lordship
would never submit. * 1 remember/' says Sir James, •'that K. Charles sent me to the
Ix>rd Chancellor on the day of his coronation, in the morning, to show him that it was his
will and pleasure, bot onlie for that day, that he wold ceed and five way to the archbishop;
but he returned by me to his Majestie a wery bruske answer, which was that he was ready
in all humility to lay his office doune at his Majestie's feet ; bot since it was his royal will
tie should enjoy it with the knowen privileges of the same, never a priest in Scotland
should sett a foot before him, so long as his blood was hote. Quhen I had related his an-
swer to the kinge, he said, * Weel, Lyone, letts goe to business; I will not medle farther
with that olde cankered gootish man, at quhose hand ther is nothing to be gained bot soure
words.' " Wnat makes this anecdote the more expressively illustrative of the rancour with
which the secular officers and nobility beheld the newly dignified clergy is, that the Lord
Chancellor had just on the preceding afternoon been raised to the rank of Earl of Kinnoul*
* David Hume of GodscrofU author of the History of the House ef Douglas.
• In a letter written on the 27th of July, to his friend Lord Elcho, he thus expresses him-
self regarding that extraordinary exertion of popular force : —
My Lord, — I know your suddain departure from this citey on Saturday was to see how
they brought your light from darkness. Nather will I accuse you as privy to that Osamma
our grate- heided bishope had this bypast Saboth, from the tumultuous concors in wekom-
Digitized by
Google
112 SIR JAMES BALFOUE.
Bat, though indignant, in common with all people of his own persuasion, at
the religious innovations attempted by the government, Sir James appears to
have very soon adopted different feelings. Like many moderate persons, who
had equally condemned the ill advised conduct of the king, he afterwards began to
fear that the opposition would produce greater mischiefs than the evil which was
opposed. He conceived that the people, in their indignation at the royal mea-
sure*, had put themselves under a more slavish subjection to a band of ambitious
nobles, who appeared determined to press upon the royal prerogative till they
should leave no trace of the ancient government in die land. Thus, so early as
May 1639, less than two years after the publication of " Stoneyfield Day," and
while the popular leaders enjoyed an unlimited power, he is found addressing
the following letter " to a noble friend."
Altho, my lord, you think perhaps I might gaine muche by silence, for my part 1
will never make question in speaking, quhen I have aney thing in my head better
than silence, and admonishe your lordship once again to bewarr of thosse men quho,
furiously seeking to cry downe the present government, and to shake ihe tundamen-
tall lawes of the kingdom, doe hot rather aim at ther owen particular advantages than
redress of disorders, and since I have admonished your lordship quhat to eshew, I
wold also gladly advysse you quhat were most fitting for your awen housse and the
preservation of your awen family to follow. And to causae, if I could, good lawes
to aryase out of evill maneris were not I think it more fitt to take tyme to deliberate
upone a matter of such importance, and trewly, my lord, to speake heirin to purpose
all the witt I have, joined to that of others, were no more than sufficient In confi-
dence of your lordship's pardon, and in assurance that ye will remaine constant to be
my werrey good lord, I will heir subscribe myself,
Your lordship's most obliged servant.
Falkland, 9 May, 1639.
At a somewhat earlier date, he writes in the following terms to bis friend
Drummond, who, it will be recollected, was also a devoted loyalist : —
Sir,— By your letters, you aske how I live heir in winter, out of the capitall citey.
I assure you, mured up within the royali walles, expecting the sessone of primrosses
and anemonies. I am heir in a place of no curiosites. The sunne hath yet heat
eneuche to dissolve our medow snowes, which all the winter fall upon the neighbouring
mountains. If ye wold have me to concetll nothing from you, I must freely tell you
that there is no place quhar verteu is so neir to vice as heir. Idleness in this place
ing home their new devised liturgie to old St Geilles: Bot our day here began© to darken
ere twelffe o'docke, (a verey short day in Julay indeid) and if we lire to tell vou, my lorde
lykely to become a foule day, ver not our pryme churchmen had large breicnes ( happily}
to have been safely gone I verely think that he wold have left Arminius house, and run
under the keyes of the baticane— nay, he that first vented here Christ's locall discension to
hell, if he might have been liberat of feare, wold have (before his tyrae) gone thither him-
selve. Bot this day Is fair wether, and ane indictione set on Edinburghe, for since the
precelsse peopell will not sing ther prayers, our famous clergy will not suffer them to hare
aney In prosse. Our weyffes heir inveighss [envy] your lordships happines, quho may
pray publickly as the primitive fathers did, and say *o be it, quheras ther gressey bellied fa-
thers wold have them to sing Amen, and to usse maney vantone curtisies, bobbing*, nod-
ings, and kneilings, which this roughs and uncivill multitude have not been accustomed nor
arquanted with— a world of such trash and trumpries as your lordship may behold landeit
in ther New Alcoran. God bless our prince and all thouse that gives him healthful! coan-
saill, and as to thesse men quho only ambitiously hunts ther commodity and honor, God
gif them the reward of that honorles persone, quho after he had betrayed his maker and
roaster, hanged himselve, and gif your lordship many happey dayes to be assured of the
treuth, by which I own myselve to be,
Your lordships faithful friind and servant
Digitized by
Google
SIR JAMES BALFOClt H3
being our honest mens ordinarey creatione, and debauches of all sortes the exercisses
quherein they disscipiuie themselves. Notwithstanding if ye be yet yourselve, and
by solemne vow liave forsaken the world and the vanities thereof, assure yourselve
that it is in this place quher felicitie doth attend you, And being once in this place,
you will esteeme ail thosse as banished persons uuhom you have Ipft [n Edin-
burghe behind. Faire weill, and confidently love liim quho sail ever bir,
Your treu friend and servant.
Falkland, January 8, 1639.
It thus appears tliat, in some disgust at the bold measures taken against the
government, he had now retired to the royal hunting-palace of Falkland, where,
and at his seat of Kinnaird, he devoted himself to those studies hy which the
present may be forgotten in the past His annals, however, show that he still
occasionally appeared in public affairs in his capacity of Lord Lion. It is also
dear that his political sen tune a la must have been of no obtrusive character, as
he continued in his office during the whole term of the cfril war, and was only
at last deprived of it by Cromwell. During his rural retirement at Falkland and
Kinnaird, he collected many manuscripts relative to heraldry, and wrote many
others in his own language, of which some are preserved in the Advocates' Libra-
ry* while others were either lost at the capture of Perth (1651), to which town
he had conveyed them for safety, or have since been dispersed. Persevering
with particular 'diligence in illustrating the History of Scotland* he had recourse
to the ancient charters and diplomas of the kingdom, the archives of monasteries,
and registers of cathedral churches, and in his library was a great number of
chronicles of monasteries, both originals and the abridgments; but it is to be
deeply regretted that many of these valuable manuscripts fell a prey to the sa-
crilegious and illiterate, and were shamefully destroyed by the hands of children,
or perished in the flames during the civil wars. A few only were opportunely
rescued from destruction by those who were acquainted with their value, 1 he
style of these monastic chro nicies was, indeed, rude and barbarous ; but they
xv ere remarkable for the industry, judgment, and fidelity to truth, with nhich
they were compiled* For some time after the erection of monasteries in this
kingdom, these writers were almost the only, and certainly the most respectable
observers in literature, as scarcely any other persons preserved in writing the me-
mory of the important occurrences of the times. In these registers and chroni-
cles were to be found, an accurate record of transactions with foreign powers,
whether in forming alliances, contracting marriages of state, or regulating com-
merce ; letters and bulls of the holy see ] answers, edicts, and statutes of kings ;
church rescripts ; provincial constitutions ; acts of parliament : buttles ; deaths
of end ne tit persons ; epitaphs and inscriptions \ and scmetimes the natural ap-
pearances of the seasons ; the prevalent diseases ; miracles and prodigies ; the
heresies that sprung up • with an account of the authors, and their punishment*,
hi si H u- 1, they committed to writing every important occurrence in church and
state, that any question arising in after ages might be settled by their authority,
and the unanimous confirmation of their faithful and accurate chronicles. In
collecting and preserving these manuscripts, I'alfnur therefore raised a mom men t
to his memory which the latest posterity must revere. For he did so fmni a
conviction that these old and approved authors were the only guides to the
knowledge of facta, as well as to correct evidence, arrd reasoning on the remote
history of Fcotlaud: and he considered them, not only of signal use to himself,
but a valuable treasure to the literature of the country. He therefore persevered
throughout life in collecting such manuscripts, without regard to either trouble
or expense, The catalogue which he left is still extant," although many, as al*
j. * iMemorla BaJftmriaita, p, 19—33, P
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
114
SIR JAMES BALFOUR.
ready mentioned, were lost by the depredations of the English and other <
He formed with great industry, and at a considerable expense, a library of the
most valuable books on every subject, particularly in the branches of Scottish
history, antiquities, and heraldry. From these he extracted every assistance
they could afford in the pursuit of his inquiries, and for further aid he estab-
lished a correspondence with the most respectable living historians, such as
Robert Maule, Henry Maule, David Buchanan, Gordon of Straloch, and, as has
already been shown, Drummond of Hawthornden, all of whom he regarded
through life with the warmest esteem, and with the greatest respect for their
talents and accomplishments.
He endeavoured to elucidate our history (which was then involved in confu-
sion) from the examination of ancient medals, coins, rings, bracelets, and other
relics of antiquity, of which he formed a separate collection, as an appendage to
his library. Observing also from historians, that the Romans had long been
•settled in Scotland, and had made desperate attempts to expel our ancestors,
both Scots and Picts, he collected the inscriptions which they had left on cer-
tain stone buildings, and transcribed them among his notes. In compiling the
work to which he gave the title of Annals, our author was more anxious to sup-
ply the deficiencies of other historians, and to bring to light obscure records,
than to exhibit a continued and regular history of Scotland. He therefore care-
fully extracted, from old manuscripts, the names, dignities, and offices of dis-
tinguished public characters, the dates of remarkable transactions, and every
other circumstance of importance, and arranged them in separate paragraphs.
He was actuated by a generous disposition, to rescue from oblivion and the
grave, the memory of illustrious men ; for which purpose he visited all the ca-
thedral, and the principal parish churches of the kingdom, and examined their
sepulchres and other monuments, from which he copied the epitaphs and inscrip-
tions, carefully preserving them in a volume. He deeply interested himself in
some laudable attempts to improve the geography of Scotland. The ingenious
Timothy Pont traversed the whole kingdom, (an attempt which had not been
made before) and from personal surveys made plans and descriptions of the
different counties and islands, which he was intending to publish, when carried
off by a premature death. Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet put these papers into
the hands of Straloch, by whom they were published, with corrections and addi-
tions, in the descriptions accompanying Bleau's maps. Sir James made also a sur-
vey of Fife, his native county, examining particularly ancient monuments, and
the genealogies of the principal families. He afterwards compiled a description of
the whole kingdom, of which the manuscript was so useful to Bleau, that he
dedicated to our author the map of Lome in his Theatrum Scotis, and embel-
lished it with the arm* of Balfour.
Zealous in the improvement and knowledge of heraldry, he carefully reviewed,
not only the. public acts and diplomas of nobility, but the contents of ancient
edifices, temples, and palaces, shields and sepulchral monuments, When it had
become proper, from his years, to allow the Prince of Wales a separate estab-
lishment, an inquiry was ordered concerning the revenues of the hereditary
princes, as steward or lords marshall of Scotland, in which Balfour appears to
have taken part, as we find among his manuscripts the following ; " Tlie true
present state of the principality of Scotland, with the means how the same may
be most conveniently increased and augmented ; with which is joined ane sur-
vey, and brief notes from the public registers of the kingdoms, of certain inftft-
ments and confirmations given to princes of Scotland ; and by them to their
vassals of diverse baronies and lands of the principalitie, since the fifteenth year
of the reign of Robert 1IL"
Digitized by
Google
BOBSET BALFOUR. 115
In the history of this country, he displayed his uncommon industry in his
numerous collection of manuscripts, in the great assemblage of historical works
in his own library, and in his careful inspection of the various manuscripts dis-
persed over the kingdom, from which he generally extracted the substance, if he
did not wholly transcribe them, forming a general index to such as were useful in
Scottish history. He made several abridgments of the Registers of Scone, Cam-
buskenneth, and others, and from the works of Major, Boece, Leslie, and Buchan-
an, which, in proper order, formed parts of his chronological works, along with
relations of important transactions throughout the world. Besides this, he wrote
a remarkably concise yet comprehensive history of the kings of Scotland, from
Fergus I. to Charles I. He also intended to have enlarged the annals of the
Scottish kings from James I. to the beginning of Charles II., of which he had
finished the two first James*, on a more diffuse and extensive scale. In other
works, he wrote memoirs of James IIL, IV., V., of Queen Mary, and of James
VL, and the transactions of Charles L, brought down to his death. In natural
history, he wrote an alphabetical list of gems, with descriptions, their names
and qualities, and the places where they are produced. Another work upon
the same subject, written in Latin, exhibited from various authors, an account 01
ingenious inventions or frauds, practised in counterfeiting and imitating precious
stones.
Sir James concluded an industrious, and, it would appear, a most blameless
life, in February, 1657, when he must have been about sixty years of age. He
had been four times married ; 1st, to Anna Alton, by whom he had three sons
and six daughters, and who died August 26th, 1644 ; 2nd, to Jean Durham,
daughter of the laird of Pitarrow, his own cousin, who died without issue
only eleven months subsequent to the date of his first wife's death ; 3d, to Mar-
garet Arnot, only daughter of Sir James Arnot of Fernie, by whom he had three
sons and three daughters ; 4th, to Janet Auchinleck, daughter of Sir William
Auchinleck of Balmanno, by whom he had two daughters. Yet his family is
now extinct in the male line. The Annals and Short Passages of State, above
alluded to, were, after nearly two centuries of manuscript obscurity, published,
in 1824, in 4 volumes 8vo. by Mr James Haig of the Advocates' Library, in
which receptacle nearly the whole of the collections of this great antiquary have
found a secure resting-place.
BALFOUR, Robert, a distinguished philosopher of the seventeenth century,
was principal of Guyenne college, Bourdeaux, and is mentioned by Morhof as a
celebrated commentator on Aristotle. According to Dempster, he was "the
Phoenix of his age ; a philosopher profoundly skilled in the Greek and Latin
languages ; a mathematician worthy of being compared with the ancients : and
to those qualifications he joined a wonderful suavity of manners, and the utmost
warmth of affection towards his countrymen." This eminent personage appears
to have been one of that numerous class of Scotsmen, who, having gained all
their honours in climes more genial to science than Scotland was a few centu-
ries ago, are to this day better known abroad than among their own countrymen.
According to the fantastic Urquhart, who wrote in the reign of Charles I.,
" Most of the Scottish nation, never having astricted themselves so much to the
proprieties of words as to the knowledge of things, where there was one precep-
tor of languages amongst them, there were above forty professors of philosophy :
nay, to so high a pitch did the glory of the Scottish nation attain over all the
parts of France, and for so long a time continue in that obtained height, by vir-
tue of an ascendant the French conceived the Scots to have above ail nations, in
matter of their subtlety in philosophical disceptations, that there hath not been, till
of late, for these several ages together, any lord, gentleman, or other, in all thai
Digitized by
Google ^
116 JOHN BALIOL.
country, who being deairoui to have his son instructed in the principles of phil-
osophy, would intrust him to the discipline of any other than a Scottish matter ;
of whom they were no less proud than Philip was of Aristotle, or Tullius of Crs-
tippus. And if it occurred (as very often it did,) that a pretender to a place in
any French university, having, in his tenderer years, been subferulary to some
other kind of schooling, should enter in competition with another aiming at the
same charge and dignity, whose learning flowed from a Caledonian source, com-
monly the first was rejected and the other preferred." It nevertheless appears that
Robert Balfour prosecuted the study of philology, as well as that of philosophy,
with considerable success. His edition of Cleomedes, published at Bourdeaux,
in 1605, " hatin* versa, et perpetno commentario illustrator is spoken of in
(he highest terms of praise by the erudite Barthius. Other works by Balfour sue,
" Gelaaii Gyziceni Commentarius Actorum Nicauu Concilii, Roberto Balforeo in-
terpret*, 1604, folio," — u Commentarius R. Balfbrei in Organum Logician Aris
totalis, 16 16, 4to," — and, " R. Balforei Scoti Commentariorum in lib. Arist de
Philosophia, tomus secundus, 1620, 4ta"
BALIOL, Joint, king of Scotland, was the son of John de Baliol, of Bernard's
Castle in the county of Durham, a man of great opulence, being poss e ss e d of
thirty knights' fees, (equal to £ 19,000 of modern money,) and who was a steady
adherent of Henry III., in all his civil wars. The mother of Baliol was Devor-
gilla, one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Allan, Lord of Galloway, by
Margaret, eldest daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of Malcolm IV.
and William the Lion, kings of Scotland. The first of the English family of
Baliol was a Norman noble, proprietor of the manors of Baliol, Harcourt, Dam-
pat, and Horne in France, and who, coming over with the Conqueror, left a son,
Guy, whom William Ruftis appointed to be Lord of the forest of Teesdale and
Marwood, giving him at the same time the lands of Middleton and Guiseford in
Northumberland Guy was the father of Bernard, who built the strong castle on
the Tees, called from him Bernard's Castle. Eustace, son of this noble, was
the father of Hugh, who was the father of John de Baliol, 1 the father of the king
of Scotland
i John de Baliol has distinguish*! himself fn English literary history, by founding one of
the colleges of Oxford, which still bears his name. As this institution is connected in more
ways than one with Scotland, the following account of its foundation, from Chalmers* His-
tory of Oxford, may he read with interest " The wealth and political consequence of John
de Baliol were dignified by a love of learning, and a benevolence of disposition, which,
about the year 1263 (or 1966, as Wood thinks,) induced Mm to maintain certain poor scho-
lars of Oxford, in number sixteen, bv exhibitions, perhaps with a view to seme more per-
manent establishment, when he should have leisure to mature a plan for tlwt purpose. On
his death, in 1969, which appears from this circumstance to have been sudden, he could only
recommend the objects of his bounty to his lady and his executors, but left no written deed
or authority : and as what he had formerly given was from his personal estate, now in ether
hands, the farther care of his scholars would in all probability have ceased, had not his
lady been persuaded to fulfil his Intention in the most honourable manner, by taking upon
herself the future maintenance of them. * • » • The first step which the Lady
Devorgilla took, in providing for the scholars, was to have a house in Horsemoiupr Lane,
afterwards called Can ditch (from Candida Fossa) in St Mary Magdalene's parish, and on
the site where the present college stands ; and being supported in his design by her hus-
band's executors, continued the provision winch he allotted. In 1889, she gave them statutes
under her seal, and appointed Hugh de Hartipoll and William de Menyle as procurators
or governors of her scholars. • * * • In 1884, the Lady Devorcilla purchased
a tenement of a citisen of Oxford, called Mary's Hall, as a perpetual settlement for tin
principal and scholars of the House of Baliol. This edifice, after receiving suitable repairs
and additions, was called New Baliol Hall, and their former residence then began to re-
ceive the name of Old Baliol Hall. The same year, she made over certain lands in the
county of Northumberland, the greater part of which was afterwards lost The foundation,
however, was about this time confirmed by Oliver, bishop ef Lincoln, and by the son of the
founder, who was afterwards king of Scotland, and whose consent in this matter seems to
entitle htm to the veneration of the society. * * * * The revenues of the col-
lege were at first small, yielding only eight-pence per week to each scholar, or twenty-sev en
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BALIOL. itf
The cimunstances which led to the appearance of John Baliol in Scottish his-
tory, may be thus briefly narrated. By the death of Alexander the third, the
crown of Scotland devolved on the Maiden of Norway, Margaret, the only child
of Alexander's daughter, late Queen of Norway. As she was only three years of
age, and residing in foreign parte, the convention of estates made choice of six
noblemen to be regents of the kingdom during her absence or minority ; but
dissensions soon arising among them, Eric, king of Norway, interposed, and sent
plenipotentiaries to treat with Edward king of England, concerning the affairs
of the infant Queen and her kingdom. Edward had already formed a scheme
for uniting England and Scotland, by the marriage of his eldest son with Mar-
garet, and, accordingly, after holding conferences at Salisbury, he sent an em-
bassy to the parliament of Scotland, on the 16th of July, 1290, with full powers
to treat of this projected alliance. The views of Edward were cheerfully met by
the parliament of Scotland : a treaty was drawn out honourable to both parties,
in which — to guard against any danger that might arise from so strict an alli-
ance with such a powerful and ambitious neighbour— -Ae freedom and indepen-
dency of Scotland were fully acknowledged and secured ; and commissioners
were despatched to Norway to conduct the young Queen into her dominions.
But this fair hope of lasting peace and union was at once overthrown by the
death of the princess on her passage to Britain ; and the crown of Scotland be-
came a bone of contention between various competitors, the chief of whom were,
John Baliol, lord of Galloway, Robert Bruoe, lord of Annandale, and John Has-
tings, lord of Abergavenny. In order to understand the grounds of their seve-
ral claims, it will be necessary to trace briefly their genealogy.
On the death of the Maiden of Norway, Alexander's grandchild, the crown of
Scotland devolved upon the posterity of David, earl of Huntington, younger bro-
ther, as already mentioned, of the kings Malcolm and William* David left three
daughters, Margaret, Isabella, and Ada. Margaret, the eldest daughter, married
Allan, lord of Galloway, by whom she bad an only daughter, Devorgilla, married
to John Baliol, by whom she had John Baliol, the subject of this article, who,
therefore, was great-grandson to David Earl of Huntington, by his eldest daugh-
ter. Isabella, the second daughter of David, married Robert Bruce, by whom
she had Robert Bruoe, the competitor— who, therefore, was grandson to the
Earl of Huntington, by his second daughter. Ada, youngest daughter of David,
married John Hastings, by whom she had John Hastings — who, therefore, was
grandson to David, by his third daughter. Hastings could have no claim to the
crown, while the posterity of David's elder daughters were in being ; but he in-
sisted that the kingdom should be divided into three parts, and that he should
inherit one of them. As, however, the kingdom was declared indivisible, his
pretensions were excluded, and the difficulty of the question lay between the two
great competitors Baliol and Bruce, — whether the more remote by one degree,
descended from the eldest daughter, or the nearer by one degree, descended
from the second daughter, had the better title ?
The divided state of the national mind as to the succession presented a fa-
vourable opportunity to the ambitious monarch of England for executing a design
which he had long cherished against the independence of Scotland, by renewing
the unfounded claim of the feudal superiority of England over it It has been
Sounds nine shillings and fourpencc for the whole per annum, which was soon found insuf-
cient. A number of benefactors, however, promoted the purposes of the founder, by en-
riching the establishment with gifts of land, money, and church-livings."
Mr Chalmers also mentions, that in 1340 a new Fet of statutes for the college, received,
amongst other confirmatory seals, that of «• Edward Baliol, king of Scotland,'' namely, the
grandson of the founder. The seal attached by Devorgilla to the original statutes contains
a portrait of her. She died in 1269.
Digitized by
Google
118 JOHN BALIGL.
generally supposed, dint he was chosen arbitrator by the regents and states of
Scotland in the competition for the crown ; but it appears that hU interferencii
was solicited by a few only of the Scottish nobles who were in his own interest.
Assuming this, however, as the call of the nation, and collecting an arniy to sop-
port his iniquitous pretensions, be requested the nobility and clergy of Scotland,
and the competitors for the crown, to meet him at Norham within the English
territories, There, after many professions of good-will and affection to Scot-
land, he claimed a right of Lord Paramount over it, and required that tliis right
should be immediately recognized* The Scots were struck with amazement at
this unexpected demand \ but, feeling 1 themselves entirely in his power, could
only request time for the consideration of his claim. Another meeting wa*
fixed upon ■ and during the interval, he employed every method to strengthen
his party in Scotland, and by threats and promises to bring as many as possible
to acknowledge his superiority. Ilia purpose was greatly forwarded by the mu-
tual distrusts and jealousies that existed among the Soots, and by tile time-herr-
ing ambition of the competitors, who were now multiplied to the number of thir-
teen—some, probably, stirred up to perplex the question, and others, perhaps,
prompted by vanity. On the day appointed (2d June, 1291) in a plain opposite
to the castle of Noil mm, die superiority of the crown of England over the crown of
Scotland was fully acknowledged by all the competitors tor the latter, as well as
by many barons and prelates ; and thus Edward gained the object on which his
heart had been long set, by conduct disgraceful to himself as it was to those who
had the government and guardianship of Scotland in keeping. All the royal
castles and places of strength in the country were put into his hands, under the
security that he should make full restitution in two mo n tits from the date of his
award, and with the ostensible reason that he might have a kingdom to bestow
on the person to whom it should be adjudged. Having thus obtained his wish,
he proceeded to take some steps towards determining the claim of the competi-
tors. Commissioners were appointed to meet at Berwick; and after various
deliberations, the crown was finally adjudged to John Baliol, on the I9lh of
November, 1202, and next day Baliol swere fealty to Edward at Norham.
Hal iol was crowned at Scone shortly after ; hut, that he might not forget
his dc pendancy, Edward recalled him into Kn gland, immediately after his
coronation, and made him renew his homage and fealty at Newcastle. He was
soon loaded with fresh indignities. In the course of a year he received no fewer
ili an six citations to appear before Edward in the English parliament, to answer
private and unimportant complaints which were preferred against him by hta
subjects. Although led by an insidious policy, and his own ambition, into tha
most humiliating concessions, Baliol seems not to have been destitute of spirit,
or to have received without resentment the indignities laid upon him. In one
of the causes be tore the parliament of England, being asked for his defence — -
" I am king of Scotland," 1 he said, " I dare not make answer here without the.
advice of my people. " " What means this refusal,* 7 said Edward, " you are my
liegeman ; you have done homage to me ; you are here in consequence of my
summons f* Baliol replied with firmness, " In matters which respect my king*
dom* 1 neither dare nor shall answer in this place, without the advice of my
people. 1 ' Edward requested that he would ask a delay for the consideration of
the question ; but Baliol, perceiving that his so doing would be construed into
an acknowledgment of the jurisdiction of the English parliament, refused.
In the meantime, a war breaking out between France and England, Baliol
seize d upon it as a favourable opportunity for shaking off a yoke that had be-
come intolerable. He negotiated a treaty with Philip, the French king, on Lhe
23d October, 12!) 5, hy which it was agreed to assist one another against their
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN BALIOL. ,,„
common enemy the king of England, and not to conclude any separate peace.
M the same time, Baliol solemnly renounced his allegiance to Edward, and re*
ceived from tbe Pope an absolution from the oaths of tealty which he had sworn.
The grounds of his renunciation were these — That Edward had wantonly and
upon «light suggestions summoned him to Jus courts; — that he bad seized his
English estates, his goods, and the goods of his subjects ; — that he had forcibly
carried off and still retained certain natives of Scotland ; — and that, when remon-
strances were made, instead of redressing, he bad continually aggravated these
injuries. Edward is said to have received Bailors renunciation with more con-
tempt than anger. "The foolish traitor," he exclaimed, "since he will not
come to us, we will go to him." He accordingly raised a large army ; and,
sending his brother into France, resolved himself, in person, to make a total con-
quest of Scotland.
While Edward advanced towards Berwick, a small army of Scots broke into
Northumberland and Cumberland, and plundered the country* The castle of
Werk was taken ; and a thousand men, whom Edward sent to preserve it, falling
into an ambush, were slain. An English squadron, also, which blocked up Ber-
wick by sea, was defeated, and sixteen of their ships sunk But these partial
successes were toll owed by fatal losses. The king of England was a brave and
skilful general ; he conducted a powerful army against a weak and dispirited
nation, headed by an unpopular prince, and distracted by party animosities.
His eventual success was, therefore, as complete as might have been anticipated,
He crossed the Tweed at Coldstream, took Berwick, and put all the garrboD
and inhabitants to the sword. The castle of Roxburgh was delivered into his
bands ; and be hastened Ware tine Earl of Surrey forward to besiege Dunbar,
n arenne was there met by the Scots army, who, abandoning the advantage or
their situation, poured down tumultuously on the English, and were repulsed
with terrible slaughter* After this defeat, the castles of Dunbar, Edinburgh, and
Stirling, fell into Edward's hands, and he was soon in possession of the whole of
the south of Scotland.
Baliol, who had retired beyond the river Tay, with the shattered remains of
his army, despairing of making any effectual resistance, sent messengers to im-
plore the mercy of Edward. The haughty Plantagenet communicated the hard
terms upon which alone he might hope for what he asked ; namely , an unqua-
lified acknowledgment of his * l unjust and wicked rebellion," and an unconditional
surrender of himself and his kingdom into tbe hands of his master, Baliol,
whose hfe presents a strange variety of magnanimous efforts and humiliating
selfahaseuients. consented to these conditions; and the ceremony of his degra-
dation accordingly took place, July 2, 12Q6, in the church-yard of Stracathro,
a village near Montrose. Led by force and in fear of his life, into the presence
of the Bishop of Durham and the English nobles, mounted on a sorry hone, he
was first commanded to dismount ; and his treason being proclaimed, they pro-
ceeded to strip him of his royal ornaments, The crown was snatched from his
head ; the ermine torn from his mantle, I he sceptre wrested from his hand, and
every thing removed from him belonging to the state and dignity of a king.
Dressed only in his shirt and drawers, and holding a white rod in his hand,
after the fashion of penitents, he confessed that, by evil and false counsel, and
through his own simplicity, he had grievously offended his liege lord, recapitu-
lated all the late transactions, and acknowledged himself to be deservedly de-
prived of his kingdom* He then absolved his people front their allegiance, and
signed a deed resigning his sovereignty over ihem into the hands of king EdW
ward, giving his eldest son as a hostage for his fidelity.
The acknowledgment of an English parainountcy has at all times been so dis-
Digitized by VjOOQ
120 JOHN BALIOL.
agreeable to the Scottish people, and the circumstances of this renunciation of
the kingdom are so extremely humiliating to national pride, that John Baliol
nas been ever since held in hatred and contempt, and is scarcely- allowed a
place in the ordinary rolls of the Scottish monarchs. It must be said, however,
in his defence, that his first acknowledgment of the pararaountcy was no more
than what his rival Bruce and the greater part of the nobles of the kingdom
were also guilty of; while he is certainly entitled to some credit lor his efforts
to shake off the yoke, however inadequate his means were for doing* so, or
whatever ill fortune he experienced in the attempt In his deposition, notwith-
standing some equivocal circumstances in his subsequent history, be must be
looked upon as only the victim of an overwhelming force.
The history of John Baliol alter his deposition is not in general treated with
much minuteness by the Scottish historians, all of whom seem to have wished to
close their eyes as much as possible to the whole affair of the resignation, and
endeavoured to forget that the principal personage concerned in it had ever
been king of Scotland, This history, however, is curious. The discrowned
monarch and his son were immediately transmitted, along with the stone of
Scone, the records of the kingdom, and all other memorials of the national in-
dependence to London, where the two unfortunate princes were committed to a
kind of honourable captivity in the Tower. Though the country was reduced
by the English army, several insurrections which broke out in the subsequent
year showed that the hearts of the people were as yet unsubdued. These insur-
gents invariably rose in the name of the deposed king John, and avowed a
resolution to submit to no other authority. It is also worth remarking', as a
circumstance favourable to the claims and character of Baliol, that he was still
acknowledged by the Pope, the King of France, and other continental princes.
When Wallace rose to unite all the discontented spirits of the kingdom in one
grand effort against the English yoke, he avowed himself as only (he governor
of the kingdom in name of King John, and there is a charter still extant, to
which the hero appended the seal of Baliol, which seems, by some chance, to
have fallen into his hands. The illustrious knight of Elderslie, throughout the
whole of his career, acknowledged no other sovereign than Baliol; and,
what is perhaps more remarkable, the father of Robert Bruce, who had formerly
asserted a superior title to the crown, and whose son afterwards displaced the Baliol
dynasty, appeared in arms against Edward in favour of King John, and in his
name concluded several truces with the English officers. There is extant a deed
executed on the 13th of November, 1299, by William, Bishop of St Andrews,
Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and John Comyn the younger, styling themselves
guardians of the kingdom of Scotland ; in which they petition King Edward for
a cessation of hostilities, in order, as they afterwards expressed themselves, that'
they might live as peaceable subjects under their sovereign King John.
There Is, however, no reason to suppose, that these proceedings were in ac-
cordance with any secret instructions from Baliol, who, if not glad to get
quit of his uneasy sovereignty, at the time he resigned it, at *least seems to
have afterwards entertained no wish for its recovery. A considerable time be-
fore his insurgent representatives made the above declaration in his behalf, he
is found executing a deed of the following tenor : " In the name of God, Amen.
In the year 1298, on the 1st of April, in the house of the reverend father,
Anthony, Bishop of Durham, without London. The said Bishop discoursing of
the state and condition of the kingdom of Scotland, and of the inhabitants of
the said kingdom, before the noble lord John Baliol ; the said John, of his own
proper motion, in the presence of us, the Notary, and the subscribing witnesses,
amoi gst other things, said and delivered in the French tongue to this effect, that
Digitized by
Google
JbJDWAKD BAJWUL.
121
is to gay, that while he, the said realm of Scotland, as King and Lord thereof,
held and governed, he had found in the people of the said kingdom so much
malice, fraud, treason, and deceit, that, for their malignity, wickedness, treachery,
and other detestable facts, and for that, as he had thoroughly understood, they
had, while their prince, contrived to poison him, it was his intention never to go
or enter into the said kingdom of Scotland for the future, or with the said king-
dom or its concerns, either by himself or others, to intermeddle, nor for the rea-
sons aforesaid, and many others, to have any thing to do with the Scots. At
the same time, the said John desired the said Bishop of Durham, that he would
acquaint the most magnificent prince, and his Lord, Edward, the most illustrious
king of England, with his intention, will, and firm resolution in this respect
This act was signed and sealed by the public notary, in the presence of the
Bishop of Durham aforesaid, and of Ralph de Sandwich, constable of the Tower
of London, and others, who heard this discourse." 1
We regret for the honour of Scotland, that, excepting the date of this shame-
ful libel, there is no other reason for supposing it to be dictated in an insincere
spirit Baliol now appears to have really entertained no higher wish than to
regain his personal liberty, and be permitted to spend the rest of his days in
retirement Accordingly, having at last convinced King Edward of his sinceri-
ty, he and his son were delivered, on the 20th of July, 1299, to the Pope's le-
gate, the Bishop of Vicenza, by whom they were transported to France. The
unfortunate Baliol lived there upon his ample estates, till the year 1314, when
he died at his seat of Castle Galliard, aged about fifty-five years. Though thus
by no means advanced in life, he is said to have been afflicted with many of the
infirmities of old age, among which was an entire deprivation of sight
Baliol, Edward. King John Baliol had two sons, Edward and Henry.
The former seems entitled to some notice in this work, on account of his vigo-
rous, though eventually unsuccessful attempt to regain the crown lost by his fa-
ther. When King John entered into the treaty with the King of France, in
1295, it was stipulated in the first article that his son Edward should marry the
daughter of Charles of Valois, niece to the French monarch, receiving with her
twenty-five thousand livres de Tournois current money, and assigning to her, as
a dowry, one thousand five hundred pounds sterling of yearly rent, of which one
thousand should be paid out of King John's lands of Baliol, Dampier, Helicourt,
and de Hornay, in France, and five hundred out of those of Lanark, Cadiou,
Cunningham, 8 Haddington, and the Castle of Dundee, in Scotland. This young
prince accompanied his father in his captivity in the Tower, and was subse-
quently carried with him to France. After the death of John Baliol, Edward
quietly succeeded to the French family estates, upon which he lived unno-
ticed till 1324, when Edward II. commanded that he should be brought
over to England, apparently for the purpose of being held up as a rival to
Robert Bruce. Whether lie now visited England or not is uncertain ; but it
would rather appear that he did not, as, in 1326, he was invited by Edward III.
for the same purpose. At this time, the English monarch was endeavouring to
secure a peace with the King of Scots, but at the same time held himself pre-
pared for war by mustering his barons at Newcastle. He seems to have thought
that a threat of taking Baliol under his patronage was apt to quicken the de-
sires of the Scots for an accommodation. Nevertheless, in the summer of this
» Prynne's Collections, iii. 665.
» " John Baliol is known to have possessed in Cunningham the following lands : Lam,
Noddesdale, Southannan. Dairy, Giffin, Cumsheuch, Dreghorn, the great barony of Kil-
marnock, together with Bondinton and Hartshaw ; extending in all to about L9.900 Scots
of valued rent, or about LI 6, 000 real rent at present. ''—Robertson'* Ayrdnrt Families.
Digitized by
Google
122
EDWARD BALIOL.
year, the Scots made a bold and successful incursion into England, under Ran-
dolph and Douglas, and King Edward was obliged, April 1398, to consent to
the treaty of Northampton, which acknowledged at once the independency of
the Scottish crown, and the right of Robert Bruce to wear it No more is 'heard
of Edward Baliol, till after the death of Brace, when he was tempted by the
apparent weakness of Scotland under the minority of David II. to attempt the
recovery of his birth-righL Two English barons, Henry de Beaumont and
Thomas Lord 'Wake, claimed certain estates in Scotland, which had been
declared their property by the treaty of Northampton ; Randolph, the Scot-
tish regent, distrusting the sincerity of the English in regard to other articles
of this treaty, refused to restore those estates ; and the two barons accord-
ingly joined with Baliol in his design. That the English king might not be
supposed accessory to so gross a breach of the treaty, he issued a proclama-
tion against their expedition ; but they easily contrived to ship four hundred
men at arms and three thousand infantry at Holderness, all of whom were safely
landed on the coast of Fife, July 31, 1332. Only eleven days before this event,
the Scottish people had been bereft of their brave regent, Randolph Earl of
Moray, who was almost the last of those worthies by whom the kingdom of
Bruce had been won and maintained. The regency fell into the hands of Don-
ald, Earl of Afar, in every respect a feebler man. Baliol, having beat back some
forces which opposed his landing, moved forward to Forteviot, near Perth ; where
the Earl of Mar appeared with an army to dispute his farther progress. As the
Scottish forces were, much superior in number and position to- the English,*Baliol
found himself in a situation of great jeopardy, and would willingly have re-
treated to his ships, had that been possible. Finding, however, no other re-
source than to fight, he led his forces at midnight across the Erne, surprised the
Scottish camp in a state of the most disgraceful negligence, and put the whole
to the route. This action, fought on the 12th of August, was called the battle of
Dupplin. The conqueror entered Perth, and for some time found no resistance
to his assumed authority. On the 94th of September, he was solemnly crowned
at Scone. The friends of the line of Bruce, though unable to ofler a formal
opposition, appointed Andrew Moray of Both we 11 to be regent in the room of
the Earl of Mar, who had fallen at Dupplin. At Roxburgh, on the 33rd ef
November, Baliol solemnly acknowledged Edward of England for his liege lord,
and surrendered to him the town and castle of Berwick, " en account of the
great honour and emoluments which he had procured through the good will of
the English king, and the powerfal and acceptable aid contributed by his peo-
ple." The two princes also engaged on this occasion to aid each other in all
their respective wars. Many of the Scottish chiefs now submitted to Baliol, and
it does not appear improbable that he might have altogether retrieved a king-
dom which was certainly his by the laws of hereditary succession. But on the
1 5th of December, the adherents of the opposite dynasty surprised him in his
turn at Annan, overpowered - his host, and having slain his brother Henry, and
many other distinguished men, obliged him to fly, almost naked, and with har\Uy
a single attendant, to England. His subsequent effort*, though not so easily
counteracted, were of the same desultory character. He returned into Scotland
in March, and lay for some time at Roxburgh, with a small force. In May,
1333, he joined forces with King Edward, and reduced the town of Berwick.
The Scottish regent being overthrown at Halidon Hill, July 19, for a time all
resistance to the claims of Baliol ceased. In a parliament held at Edinburgh in
February, he ratified the former treaty with King Edward, and soon after sur-
rendered to that monarch the whole of the counties on the frontier, together
with the province of Lothian, as part of the kingdom of England. His power.
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BALLANTYNE.
123
however, was solely supported by foreign influence, and, upon the rite of a few
of the opposite hostile baron*, in November, 1334, he again fled to England. In
July, 1335, Edward IIL enabled him to return under the protection of an army.
But, notwithstanding the personal presence and exertions of no less a warrior
than the rioter of Creasy, the Soots new could altogether be brought under
the sway of this rassal king. For two or three years, Edward Baliol held a
nominal sway at Perth, while the greater part of die country was in a state of
rebellion against him. The regent Andrew Moray, dying in July, 1338, was
succeeded by Robert Stewart, the grandson of Bruce, and nephew of David II.
who having threatened to besiege Baliol in Perth, obliged him to retreat once
more to England. The greater part of the country speedily fell under the do-
minion of the regent, nor was Edward III. now able to retrieve it, being fully
engaged in his French wars. The Scots having made an incursion, in 1344,
into England, Baliol, with the forces of the northern counties, was appointed to
oppose them. Two years after this period, when- the fatal battle of Durham,
and the capture of David II. had again reduced the strength of Scotland, Baliol
raised an insurrection in Galloway, where his family connections gave him great in-
fluence, and speedily penetrated to the central parts of the kingdom. He gained,
however, no permanent footing. For soma years after this period, Scotland
maintained a noble struggle, under its regent Robert Stewart, against both the
pretension of this adventurer, and the power of the King of England, till at
length, in 1355-6, wearied out with an unavailing contest, and feeling the ap-
proach of old age, Baliol resigned all his claims into the hands of Edward 111.
An* the consideration of five thousand mevka, and a yearly pension of two thou-
sand pounds. After this surrender, which was transacted at Roxburgh, and
included his personal estates, as well as his kingdom, this unfortunate prince
retired to England. "The fate of Edward Baliol," says Lord Hailes, " was
singular. In his invasion of Scotland during the minority of David Bruce, he
displayed a bold spirit of enterprise, and a courage superior to all difficulties.
By the victory at Dupplin, he won a crown ; some few weeks after, he was sur-
prised at Annan and lest it The overthrow of the Scots at Halidon, to which
he signally contributed, availed not to his re-establishment Year after year, he
saw his partisans mil away, and range themselves under the banner of bis com-
petitor. He became the pensioner of Edward IIL and the tool of his policy,
assumed or laid aside at pleasure : and, at last, by his surrender at Roxburgh,
he did what in him lay to entail the calamities of war upon the Scottish nation,
a nation already miserable through the consequences of a regal succession dis-
puted lor th reesco re years. The remainder of his days was spent in obscurity ;
and the historians of that kingdom where he once reigned, know not the time
of his death." It may further be mentioned, that neither these historians nor
the Scottish people at large, ever acknowledged Edward Baliol as one of the
line of Scottish monarch*. The right of the family of Bruce, though inferior in
a hereditary point of view, having been confirmed by parliament on account of
the merit of King Robert, this shadowy intruder, though occasionally dominant
through the sword, could never be considered the legitimate monarch, more
especially as he degraded himself and his country by a professed surrender of
its independence, and even of a part of its territory, to a foreign enemy. He
died childless, and, it would also appear, unmarried, in 1363, when he must
have bean advanced to at least the age of seventy.
BALLANTYNE, John. Of all the remarkable men, by whom this name, in
its various orthographical appearances, has been borne, not the least worthy of no-
tice is John Ballantyne, who died on the 16 th of June, 1821, about the age of
forty-five years. This gentleman was the son of a merchant at Kelso, where he
Digitized by
Google
124 JOHN BALLBNTYNE (oe BBLLENDEN).
was born and educate;]. In his youth, he displayed such an extraordinary quick,
ness of mind, as sufficiently betokened the general ability by which he was to be
distinguished in after life. While still a young man, his mind was turned to
literary concerns by the establishment of a provincial newspaper, the KeUo
Mail, which was begun by his elder brother James. The distinction acquired
by his brother in consequence of some improvements in printing, by which there
issued from a Scottish provincial press a series of books rivalling, in elegance
and accurate taste, the productions of a Bensley or a Baskerville, caused the
removal of both to Edinburgh about the beginning of the present century. But
the active intellect of John Ballantyne was not to be confined to the dusky
shades of the printing-house. He embarked largely in the bookselling trade,
and subsequently in the profession of an auctioneer of works of art, libraries,
&c The connection which he and his brother had established at Kelso with
Sir Walter Scott, whose Border Minstrelsy was printed by them, continued in this
more extensive scene, and accordingly during the earlier and more interesting
years of the career of the author of Waverley, John Ballantyne acted as the confi-
dant of that mysterious writer, and managed all the business of the communication
of his works to the public Some of these works were published by John Ballan-
tyne, who also issued two different periodical works, written chiefly by Sir Wal-
ter Scott, entitled respectively the Visionary and the Sale-room, of which the
latter had a reference to one branch of Mr Ballantyne's trade. It is also wor-
thy of notice, that the large edition of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, which
appeared under the name of Mr Henry Weber as editor, and which, we may pre*
sume to say, reflects no inconsiderable credit upon the Scottish press, was an en-
enterprise undertaken at the suggestion and risk of this spirited publisher.
Mr Ballantyne himself made one incursion into the field of letters: he
was the author of a tolerably sprightly novel in two thin duodecimos, styled,
" The Widow's Lodgings," which reached a second edition, and by which,
as he used to boast in a jocular manner, he made no less a sum than thirty
pound* ! . It was not, however, as an author that Mr Ballantyne chiefly shone—
his forte was story-telling. As a conteitr, he was allowed to be unrivalled by
any known contemporary. Possessing an infinite fund of ludicrous and charac-
teristic anecdote, which he could set off with a humour endless in the variety of
its shades and tones, he was entirely one of those beings who seem to have been
designed by nature for the task, now abrogated, of enlivening the formalities and
alleviating the cares of a court : he was Yorick revived. After pursuing a la-
borious and successful business for several years, declining health obliged him to
travel upon the continent, and finally to retire to a seat in the neighbourhood ot
Melrose. He had been married, at an early age, to Miss Parker, a beautiful
young lady, a relative of Dr Rutherford, author of the View of Ancient His-
tory and other esteemed works. This union was not blessed with any children.
In his Melrose rustication, he commenced the publication of a large and beautiful
edition of the British Novelists, as an easy occupation to divert the languor of
illness, and fill up those vacancies in time, which were apt to contrast disagree-
ably with the former habits of busy life. The works of the various novelists
were here amassed into large volumes, to which Sir Walter Scott furnished bio-
graphical prefaces. But the trial was brie£ While flattering himself with the
hope that his frame was invigorated by change of air and exercise, death stepped
in, and reft the world of as joyous a spirit as ever brightened its sphere. The
Novelist's Library was afterwards completed by the friendly attention of Sir Wal-
ter Scott
BALLENTYNE, (or Belj,em)kn,) John,— otherwise spelt Ballanden and Bal-
ientyn — an eminent poet of the reign of James V., and the translator of Boece's
JJ
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN BALLENTYNE (oa BELLENDEN).
125
Latin History, and of the first fire books of Livy, into the vernacular language
of his time, was a native of Lothian, and appears to have been born towards the
close of the 15th century. He studied at the university of St Andrews, wheie
his name is thus entered in the records : ." 1508, Jo. Ballet yn nac. Lew [rfontVe]."
It is probable that he remained there for several years, which was necessary before
he could be laureated. His education was afterwards completed at the univer-
sity of Paris, where he took the degree of Doctor of Divinity ; and as has been
remarked by his biographer, [Works of Bellenden, L, zzxvii,] " the effects of hie
residence upon the continent may be traced both in his idiom and language. "
He returned to Scotland during the minority of James V., and became attach-
ed to the establishment of that monarch as " Clerk of his Comptis." This ap-
pears from " the Proheme of the Cosmographe," prefixed to his translation of
Boece, in which he says : —
And first occurrit lo my remembering;
How that 1 wes in service with the king ;
But to his grace in yeris tendereat,
Clerk of his compta, thoucht I wes indf gn [unworthy, j
With hart and hant and every other thing
That micht him pleis in my maner best ;
Quhill hie invy me from his service kest,
Be thame that had the court in governing;
As bird but plumes heryit of the nest
The biographer of Ballentyne, above quoted, supposes that he must have been
the " Maister Johnne Ballentyne," who, in 1528, was " secretar and servitour "
to Archibald Earl of Angus, and in that capacity appeared before parliament to
state his master's reasons for not answering the summons of treason which had
been issued against him. We can scarcely, however, reconcile the circumstance
of his being then a " Douglas's man," with the favour he is found to have enjoyed
a few years after with James V., whose antipathy to that family was so great as
probably to extend to all its connections. However this may be, Ballentyne is
thus celebrated, in 1530, as a court poet, by Sir David Lyndsay, who had been
in youth his fellow-student at St Andrews, and was afterwards his fellow-servant
in the household of the king :
But now of late has start up heastily
A cunning clerk that writeth craftily ;
A plant of poets, called Battanten,
Whose ornat writs my wit cannot defyne ;
Get he into the court authority,
He will precel Quhitin and Kenedy,
In 1530 and 1531, Ballentyne was employed, by command of the king, in
translating Boece 's History, which had been published at Paris in 1526. The
object of this translation was to introduce the king and others who had " missed
their Latin," to a knowledge of the history of their country. In the epistle to
the king at the conclusion of this work, Ballenden passes a deserved compliment
upon his majesty, for having " dantit this region and brocht the same to sicken
rest, gud peace and tranquility ; howbeit the same could nocht be done be your
gret baronis during your tender age ;" and also says, without much flattery,
14 Your nobill and worthy deidis proceeds mair be naturall inclination and active
curage, than ony gudly persuasioun of assisteris." He also attests his own sin-
cerity, by a lecture to the king on the difference between tyrannical and just
government ; which, as a curious specimen of the prose composition of that time,
Digitized by
Google
126
JOHN BALLBNTYNB (ob BELLENDEN).
and also a testimony to the enlightened and upright character of Bailentyne, we
shall extract into theae pages :
" As Seneca says in his tragedeis, all ar nocht kingis fhat bene clothit with pur-
pure and dredoure, but only they that sekis na singulare proflfct, in danunage of
the conunonweill ; and sa vigilant that the life of their subdetis is mair deir and
precious to them than thair awin life. Ane tyrane sekis riches ; ane king sekis
honour, conquest be virtew. Ane tyrane governi* his realmis be slauchter, dre-
doure, and faket; ane king gidis his realme be prudence, integrite, and favour.
Ane tyrane suspeckis all them that hes riches, gret dominioun, auctorite, or gret
rentis ; ane king haldis sic men for his maist helply friendis. ' Ane tyrane luffis
nane bot vane fleschourisj vicious and wicket lymmaris, be quhais oounsall he
rages in slauchter and tyranny ; ane king luffis men of wisdom, gravite, and
science ; knawing weill that his gret materia maybe weill dressit be thair pru-
dence. Treuth is that kingis and tyrannis hes mony handis, mony ene, and
mony mo memberis. Ane tyrane sets him to be dred ; ane king to be luflet
Ane tyrane rejoises to mak his pepill pure ; ane king to mak thame riche.
Ane tyrane draws his pepill to sindry factiones, discord, and hatrent ; ane king
maks peace, tranquiUite, and concord ; knawing nothing sa dammagious as di-
vision amang his subdittis. Ane tyrane confounds all divine and hummane
lawis ; ane king observis thaime, and rejoises in eouite and justice. All thir pro-
perteis sal be patent, in reding the Uvis of gud and evil kingis, in the history
precedent "
To have spoken in this way to an absolute prince shows Bailentyne to have
been not altogether a courtier.
He afterwards adds, in a finely impassioned strain : — " Quhat thing maybe
mair plesand than to se in this present volume, as in ane cleir mirroure aH the
variance of tyme bygane ; the sindry chancis of fourtoun ; the bludy fechting
and terrible berganis sa mony years oonttnuit, in the defence of your realm and
liberie ; quhilk is fallen to your hieness with gret felidto. howbeit the samin
has aftimes been ransomit with maist nobill blude of your antecessoris. Quhat
is he that wil nocht rejoise to heir the knychtly afaris of thay forcy campions,
King Robert Bruce and William Wallace ? The first, be innative desyre to re-
cover his realme, wes brocht to sic calamite, that mony dayis he durst nocht
appeir in sicht of pepill ; but amang desertis, levand on rates and herbis, in
esperance of better fortoun ; bot at last, be bis singulare manheid, he come to
sic preeminent glore, that now he is reput the maist valyeant prince that was
eftir or before his empire. This other, of small beginning, be feris curage and
corporall strength, not only put Englishmen out of Scotland, but als, be feir of
his awful visage, put Edward king of England to flicht ; and held all the bor-
ders fornence Scotland waist"
Bailentyne delivered a manuscript copy of bis work to the king, in the sum-
mer of 1533, and about the same time he appears to have been engaged in a
translation of Livy. The following entries in Hie treasurer's book give a cari-
ous view of the prices of literary labour, in the court of a king of those days.
" To Maister John Bailentyne, be the kingis precept, for his translating of the
Chronykill, £30.
" 1531, Oct 4th. To Maister John Ballantyne, be the kingis precept, for
his translating of the Chroniclis, £30.
" Item, Thairefter to the said Maister Johne, be the kingis command, £6.
" 1533, July 90. To Maister John Bailentyne, for ane new Chronikle germ
to the kingis grace, £l 3.
" Item, To him in part payment of the translation of Titus Livius, £8.
Digitized by
Google
HSNBY BALNAVES. J27
•* Aug. 94. To Maister John Ballentyne, in part payment of the second
buke of Titus Livius, £8.
" Not. 30. To Maister John Ballentyne, he the kingis precept, for his
Uboris dune in translating of Livie, £20.
The literary labours of Ballentyne were still further rewarded by his royal
master, with an appointment to the archdeanery of Moray, and the escheated
property and rents of two individuals, who became subject to the pains of trea-
son for having used influence with the Pope to obtain the same benefice, against
the king's privilege. He subsequently got a racant prebendaryship in the
cathedral of Boss. His translation of Boece was printed in 1536, by Thomas I
Davidson, and had become in later times almost unique, till a new edition was
published in a remarkably elegant style, in 1831, by Messrs Tait, Edinburgh.
At the same time appeared the translation of the first two books of Livy, which
had never before been printed. The latter work seems to have been carried no
further by the translator. »
Ballentyne seems to have lived happily in the sunshine of court favour during
toe remainder of the reign of James V. The opposition which he afterwards
presented to the reformation, brought him into such odium, that he retired from
his country in disgust, and died at Rome, about the year 1 550.
The translations of Ballentyne are characterised by a striking felicity of lan-
guage, and also by a freedom that shows bis profound acquaintance with the
learned language upon which he wrought His Chronicle, which closes with the
reign of James I., is rather a paraphrase than a literal translation of Boece, and
possesses in several respects the character of an original work. Many of the
historical errors of the latter are corrected — not a few of his redundancies re*
trenched — and his more glaring omissions supplied. Several passages in the
work are highly elegant, and some descriptions of particular incidents reach to
something nearly akin to the sublime. Many of the works of Ballenden are
lost — among others a tract on the Pythagoric letter, and a discourse upon Vir-
tue and Pleasure. He also wrote many political pieces, the most of which are
lost Those which have reached us are principally Proems prefixed to his prose
works, a species of composition not apt to bring out the better qualities of a
poet ; yet they exhibit the workings of a rich and luxuriant fancy, and abound
in lively sallies of the imagination. They are generally allegorical, and distin-
guished rather by incidental beauties, than by the skilful structure of the fable.
The story, indeed, is often dull, the allusions obscure, and the general scope of
the piece unintelligible. These faults, however, are pretty general characteris-
tics of allegorical poets, and they are atoned for, in him, by the striking thoughts
and the charming descriptions in which he abounds, and which, " like threds of
gold, the rich arras, beautify his works quite thorow."
BALNAVES, Hssby, of Halhill, an eminent lay reformer, and also a prose-
writer of some eminence, was born of poor parents in the town of Kirkaldy.
After an academical course at St Andrews, he travelled to the continent, and,
hearing of a free school in Cologne, procured admission to it, and received a li
I beral education, together with instruction in protestant principles. Returning
to his native country, he applied himself to the study of law, and acted for some
time as a procurator at St Andrews. In the year 1538, he was appointed by
James V. a senator of the college of Justice, a court only instituted &f% years be-
fore. Notwithstanding the jealousy of the clergy, who hated him on account of his
religious sentiments, he was employed on important embassies by James V., and
subsequently by the governor Arran, during the first part of whose regency he
acted as secretary of state. Having at length made an open profession of the
Protestant religion, he was, at the instigation of Arran's brother, the Abbot of
Digitized by
Google
128 HENRY BALNAVES.
Paisley, dismissed from that situation. He now appears to hare entered into the
interests of the English party against the governor, and accordingly, with the
Earl of Rothes and Lord Gray, was thrown into Blackness Castle (November
1 543), where he probably remained till relieved next year, on the appearance of
the English fleet in the Firth of Forth. There is much reason to believe that this
sincere and pious man was privy to the conspiracy formed against the life of Car-
dinal Beaton ; an action certainly not the brightest in the page of Scottish his-
tory, but of which it is not too much to say, that it might have been less defensi-
ble if its motive had not been an irregular kind of patriotism. Balnaves, though
he did not appear among the actual perpetrators of the assassination, soon after
joined them in the castle of St Andrews, which they held out against the gover-
nor. He was consequently declared a traitor and excommunicated. His prin-
cipal employment in the service of the conspirators seems to have been that of
an ambassador to the English court In February 1546-7, he obtained from
Henry VIII. a subsidy of £1180, besides a quantity of provisions, for his com-
patriots, and a pension of £125 to himself, which was to run from the 25th
of March. On the 15th of this latter month, he had become bound along with
his friends, to deliver up Queen Mary, and also the castle of St Andrews, into
the hands of the English ; and, in May, he obtained a further sum of £300.
While residing in the castle, he was instrumental, along with Mr John Rough
and Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, in prevailing upon John Knox to preach
publicly in St Andrews — the first regular ministration in the reformed religion
in Scotland.
When the defenders of the castle surrendered in August, Balnaves shared in
their fate, along with Knox, and many other eminent persons. He was conveyed
to the castle of Rouen in France, and there committed to close confinement
Yet he still found occasional opportunities to communicate with his friend Knox.
Having employed himself, during his solitary hours, in composing a Treatise on
Justification, he conveyed it to the reformer, who was so much pleased with it,
that he divided it into chapters, added some marginal notes and a concise epi-
tome of its contents, and prefixed a commendatory dedication, intending that it
should be published in Scotland as soon as opportunity offered. This work fell
aside for some years, but, after Knox's death, was discovered in the house of Or-
miston by Richard Bannatyne, and was published at Edinburgh, in 1584, under
the title of "The Confession of Faith, containing, how the troubled man should
seek refuge at his God, thereto led by Faith ; fcc., Compiled by M. Henrie Bal-
naves of Halhill, one of the Lords of Session and counsell of Scotland, being as
prisoner within the old pallaice of Roane, in the year of our Lord, 1548. Di-
rect to his faithful brethren being in like trouble or more, and to all true profes-
sors and favourers of the syncere worde of God." Dr M'Crie has given some
extracts from this work in his Life of John Knox. After his return from ban-
ishment, Balnaves took a bold and conspicuous part in the contest carried on by
the lords of the congregation against the Regent Mary. He was one of the
commissioners, who, in February, 1559-60, settled the treaty at Berwick, between
the former insurgent body and the Queen of England, in consequence of which
the Scottish reformation was finally established, through aid from a country al-
ways heretofore the bitterest enemy of Scotland. In 1563, he was re-appointed
to the bench, and also nominated as one of the commissioners for revising the
Book of Discipline. He acted some years later, along with Buchanan and others,
as counsellors to the Earl of Murray, in the celebrated inquiry by English and
Scottish commissioners into the alleged guilt of Queen Mary. He died, accord-
ing to Mackenzie, in 1 579.
" In his Treatise upon Justification," says the latter authority, " lie affirms that
Digitized by
Google
GJSOBGJB BANNATYNB.
129
£?« w JU,tlfi . c " t,0 » ^ &«* "«*». whid, St Jame. .peak, of, only Li
fie. u. befow n«n ; but the jurtification by faith, which St Paul .peak. J ££.
j Jl^"/^ Ma 5 konz »' *** *»««> Jacobite aanaum, « whaterer may be in thi.
doctrine of our author'., I think we may grunt to him that the mo* of all hi.
action, which he rallied himself upon, and reckoned good work*, wre r*allv
great and heinous tint before God, tor no food man will jurtify rebellion and
murder."
^S^STFS-**?!* conteOT « ni * inrol «d »y thk pr»po.ition, either a.
to the death of Cardinal Beaton, or the accuaation. again* Queen Mary, we may
content ounelre* with quoting the opinion entertained of Balnare. by the good
and moderate Melnlle; he wa«, according to this writer, "a godly, learned
rae, and long experimented counsellor." ' A poem' by Balnavea, entitled!
An adnce to headtfrong Youth," i. elected from Bannatyne'. manuscript into
toe Evergreen. r
BANNATYNE, George, takes his title to a place in this work from a source
of lame participated by no other individual within the range of Scottish biogra-
phy ; it is to this person that we are indebted for the preservation of nearly all
the productions of the Scottish poets of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Though die services he has thus rendered to his country were in some measure
(he result of accident, yet it is also evident that, if he had not been a person of
eminent literary taste, and also partly a poet himself, we should never have had
to celebrate him as a collector of poetry. The compound claim which he has
thus established to our notice, and (he curious antique picture which is presented
to our eye by even the little that is known regarding his character and pursuits,
will, it is hoped, amply justify his admission into this gallery of eminent
Scotsmen.
George Bannatyne was born in an elevated rank of society. His father,
James Bannatyne, of the Kirktown of Newtyle, in the county of Forfar, was a
writer in Edinburgh, at a time when that profession must have been one of some
distinction and rarity; and he was probably the person alluded to by Robert
Semple, in " The Defens of Grissell Sandylands :"
* For men of law I wait not quhair to luke :
James Bannatyne was anis a man of skill.'*
h also appears that James Bannatyne held the office of Tabular to the Lords of
Session, in which office his eldest son (afterwards a Lord of Council and Session)
was conjoined with him as successor, by royal precept dated May 2, 1583.
James Bannatyne is further ascertained to have been connected with the very
ancient and respectable family of Bannachtyne, or Bannatyne of Camys, [now
Karnes] in the island of Bute. He was the father, by his wife Katharine Tail-
liefer, of twenty-three children, nine of whom, who survived at the time of his
leath, in 1583, were " weill, and sufficiently provydit be him, under God."
George Bannatyne, the seventh child of his parents, was born on the 22nd
day of February, 1545, and was bred up to trade. 1 It is, however, quite unoer-
■ In a memoir of George Baniratyne, by Sir Walter Scott, prefixed to a collection of me-
merabina regarding him, which has been printed for the Bannatyne Club, it is supposed
that he was not early engaged in business. But £is supposition seems only to rest on an
uncertain inference from a passage in George Bannatyne's " Memoriall Bulk" where it is
mentioned that Katharine Tailliefer, at her death in 1570, left behind her eleven children,
of whom eight were as vet "unput to profleit" On a careful inspection of the family no-
tices in this « memoriall bulk" ft appears as likely that George himself was one of those
already • put to proffeit " as otherwise, more especially considering that he was then twentv-
five years of age. i. a J
Digitized by
Google
230 GEORGE BANNATYNE.
tain at what time he began to be engaged in business on his own account, or
whether he spent his youth in business or not. Judging, however, as the world
is apt to judge, we should suppose, from his taste for poetry, and his haying been
a writer of verses himself that he was at least no zealous applicant to any com-
mercial pursuit Two poems of his, written before the age of twenty-three, are
full of ardent though conceited affection towards some fair mistress, whom he
describes in the most extravagantly complimentary terms. It is also to be sup-
posed that, at this age, even though obliged to seek some amusement during a
time of necessary seclusion, he could not have found the means to collect, or
the taste to execute, such a mass of poetry as that which bears his name,
if he had not previously been almost entirely abandoned to this particular pur-
suit At the same time, there is some reason to suppose that he was not alto-
gether an idle young man, given up to vain fancies, from the two first lines of
his valedictory address at the end of his collection :
* Heir endis this Bulk writtin in tyme of pest,
Quhen vwefra labor was compel'd to rest."
Of the transaction on which the whole fame of George Bannatyne rests, we give
the following interesting account from the Memoir just quoted : —
" It is seldom that the toils of the amanuensis are in themselves interesting
or that, even while enjoying the advantages of the poor scribe's labour, we are
disposed to allow him the merit of more than mere mechanical drudgery. But
in the compilation of George Bannatyne's manuscript, there are particulars
which rivet our attention on the writer, and raise him from a humble copyist
into a national benefactor.
"Bannatyne's Manuscript is in a folio form, containing upwards of eight
hundred pages, very neatly and closely written, and designed, as has been sup-
posed, to be sent to the press. The labour of compiling so rich a collection was
undertaken by the author during the time of pestilence, in the year 1568,
when the dread of infection compelled men to forsake their usual employments,
which could not be conducted without admitting the ordinary promiscuous inter-
course between man and his kindred men.
" In this dreadful period, when hundreds, finding themselves surrounded by
danger and death, renounced all care save that of selfish precaution for their
own safety, and all thoughts save apprehensions of infection, George Bannatyne
had the courageous energy to form and execute the plan of saving the literature
of a whole nation ; and, undisturbed by the universal mourning for the dead,
and general fears of the living, to devote himself to the task of collecting and
recording the triumphs of human genius; — thus, amid the wreck of all that wis
mortal, employing himself in preserving the lays by which immortality is at once
given to others, and obtained for the writer himself. His task, he informs us,
had its difficulties ; for he complains that he had, even in his time, to contend
with the disadvantage of copies old, maimed, and mutilated, and which long
before our day must, but for this faithful transcriber, have perished entirely.
The very labour of procuring the originals of the works which he transcribed,
must have been attended with much trouble and some risk, at a time when all
the usual intercourse of life was suspended, and when we can conceive that even
so simple a circumstance as the borrowing and lending a book of ballads, was
accompanied with some doubt and apprehension, and that probably the suspected
volume was subjected to fumigation, tond the precautions used in quarantine.*
s With deference to Sir Walter, we would suggest that the suspicion under which books
are always held at a time of pestilence, as a means of conveying the infection, gives great
reason to suppose that George Bannatyne had previously collected his original manuscripts,
and only took this opportunity of transcribing them The writing of eight hundred folio
Digitized by
Google
GEORGE BANNATYNE. 131
" In the reign of James IV. and V., the fine arts, as' they awakened in other
countries, made some progress in Scotland also. Architecture and music were
encouraged by both of those accomplished sovereigns ; and poetry above all,
seems to hare been highly valued at the Scottish court The King of Scotland,
who, in point of power, seems to hare been little more than the first baron of
his kingdom, held a free and merry court, in which poetry and satire seem to
have had unlimited range, even where their shafts glanced on royalty itself.
The consequence of this general encouragement was the production of much
poetry of various kinds, and concerning various persons, which the narrow exer-
tions of the Scottish press could not convey to the public, or which, if printed
at all, existed only in limited editions, which soon sunk to the rarity of manu-
scripts. There was therefore an ample mine out of which Bannatyne made his
compilation, with the intention, doubtless, of putting the Lays of the Makers out
of the reach of oblivion, by subjecting the collection to the press. But the bloody
wars of Queen Mary's time s made that no period for literary adventure ; and
the tendency of the subsequent age to polemical discussion, discouraged lighter
and gayer studies. There is, therefore, little doubt, that had Bannatyne lived
later than he did, or had he been a man of less taste in selecting his materials,
a great proportion of the poetry contained in his volume must have been lost to
posterity ; and, if the stock of northern literature had been diminished only by
the loss of such of Dunbar's pieces as Bannatyne's Manuscript contains, the da-
mage to posterity would have been infinite."
The pestilence which caused Bannatyne to go into retirement, commenced at
Edinburgh upon the 8th of September, 1568, being introduced by a merchant
of the name of Dalgleish. We have, however, no evidence to prove that Ban-
natyne resided at tjiis time in the capital. We know, from his own informa-
tion, that he wrote his manuscript during the subsequent months of October,
November, and December ; which might almost seem to imply that he had lived
in some other town, to which the pestilence only extended at the end of the
month in which it appeared in Edinburgh. Leaving this in uncertainty, it is
not perhaps too much to suppose that he might have adopted this means of
spending his time of seclusion, from the fictitious example held out by Boccacio,
who represents the tales of his Decameron as having been told for mutual amuse-
ment; by a company of persons who had retired to the country to escape the
plague. A person so eminently acquainted with the poetry of his own county,
might well be familiar with the kindred work of that illustrious Italian.
The few remaining facts of George Bannatyne's life, which have been gathered
up by the industry of Sir Walter Scott, may be briefly related. In 1 572, he
was provided with a tenement in the town of Leith, by a gift from his father.
This would seem to imply that he was henceforward, at least, engaged in busi-
ness, and resided either in Edinburgh or at its neighbouring port It was not, how-
ever, till the 27th of October, 1587, that, being then in his forty-third year, he
was admitted in due and competent form to the privileges of a merchant and
guild-brother of the city of Edinburgh. " We have no means of knowing what
branch of traffic George Bannatyne chiefly exercised ; it is probable that, as
usual in a Scottish burgh, his commerce was general and miscellaneous. We
paces in the careful and intricate style of caligraphy then practised, appears a sufficient task
in itself for three months, without supposing that any part of the time was spent in collect-
ing manuscripts. And hence we see the greater reason for supposing that a large part of
the attention of George Bannatyne before his twenty-third year was devoted to Scottish
' The accomplished writer should rather have said, the minority of James VI., whose
reign had commenced before the manuscript was written.
Digitized by
Google
132
GBORGJB BANNATYNE.
have reason to know that it was successful, as we find him in a few years pos-
sessed of a considerable capital, the time being considered, which he employed
to advantage in various money-lending transactions. It must not be forgot that
the penal laws of the Catholic period pronounced all direct taking of interest
upon money, to be usurious and illegal These denunciations did not deoease
the desire of the wealthy to derive some profit from their capital, or diminish the
necessity of the embarrassed land-holder who wished to borrow money. The
mutual interest of the parties suggested various evasions of the law, of which the
most common was, that the capitalist advanced to his debtor the sum wanted, as
the price of a corresponding annuity, payable out of the lands and tenements of
the debtor, which annuity was rendered redeemable upon the said debtor repay-
ing the sura advanced. The moneyed man of those days, therefore, imitated the
conduct imputed to the Jewish patriarch by Shylock. They did not take
interest— not as you would say
Directly interest,
but they retained payment of an annuity as long as the debtor retained the use
of their capital, which came to much the same thing, A species of transaction
was contrived, as affording a convenient mode of securing the lender's money.
Our researches have discovered that George Bannatyne had sufficient funds to
enter into various transactions of this kind, in the capacity of lender ; and, as
we have no reason to suppose that he profited unfairly by the necessities of the
other party, he cannot be blamed for having recourse to the ordinary expedi-
ents, to avoid the penalty of an absurd law, and accomplish a fair transaction,
dictated by mutual expediency."
Bannatyne, about the same time that he became a burgess of Edinburgh, ap-
pears to have married his spouse, Isobel Mawchan [apparently identical with the
modern name Maughan], who was the relict of Bailie William Nisbett, and must
have been about forty years of age at the time of her second nuptials, supposing
1586 to be the date of that event, which is only probable from the succeeding
year having produced her first child by Bannatyne. This child was a daughter,
by name Janet, or Jonet; she was born on the 3rd of May, 1587. A son,
James, born on the 6th of September, 1589, and who died young, completes the
sum of Bannatyne's family. The father of Bannatyne died in the year 1583,
and was succeeded in his estate of Newtyle, by his eldest living son, Thomas,
who became one of the Lords of Session by that designation, an appointment
which forms an additional voucher for the general respectability of the family.
George Bannatyne was, on the 27th of August, 1603, deprived of his affectionate
helpmate, Isobel Mawchan, at the age of fifty-seven, She had lived, according
to her husband's " Memorial]," " a godly, honourable, and virtuous life ; was a
wise, honest, and true matron, and departed in the Lord, in a peaceful and
godly manner. "
George Bannatyne himself deceased previous to the year 1608, leaving onl)
one child, Janet, who had, in 1603, been married to George Foulis of WoodhaU
and Ravelstone, second son of James Foulis of Colingtoun. His valuable col-
lection of Scottish poetry was preserved in his daughter's family till 1712, when
his great-grandson, William Foulis of Woodhall, bestowed it upon the Honourable
William Carmichael of Skirling, advocate, brother to the Earl of Hyndford, a
gentleman who appears to have had an eminent taste for such monuments of
antiquity. While in the possession of Mr Carmichael, it was borrowed by Allan
Ramsay, who selected from its pages the materials of his popular collection,
styled, " The Evergreen. " Lord Hailes, in 1770, published a second and more
correct selection from die Bannatyne Manuscript; and the venerable tome was,
J
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BARBOUR.
133
in 1772, by the liberality of John, third Earl of Hyndlbnt, depoiited in the
Advocate* 1 Library at Edinburgh, where it still remains.
We bare already alluded to George Bannatyne as a poet ; and it remains to
be shown in what decree he was entitled to that designation. To tell the truth,
hi* Terse* display little, in thought or imagery, that could be expected to interest
the present generation ; neither was he perhaps a versifier of great repute, even
in his own time. He seems to here belonged to a rhss very numerous in pri-
vate life, who are eminently capable of enjoying poetry, and possess, to appear-
ance, all the sensibilities which are necessary to its production ; but, wanting the
acti re or creative power, rarely yield to the temptation of writing verse T without
a signal defeat Such persons, of whom fveorge Bannatyne was certainly one,
may be said to have negative, but not positive poetry. As it seems but lair.
however, that he who has done so murJi to bring the poetry of others before the
world, should not hare his own altogether confined to the solitude of manuscript,
or the un obvious print of hii own bibliographical society, we subjoin a specimen
(rom one of the very few pieces which have come down to our own time. The
verses which follow are the quaint, but characteristic conclusion of a sonnet to
his mistress* eyebrow. It is ludicrous to observe theology pressed by the ve-
nerable rhymester into the service of love*
14 Nu thing of rycht I ask. my Lady fair,
Ho: of fre wiU and mercy me to sajf j
Your will is your awin, as reaaoun wnld it ware,
Thairfoir of grace, and uocht of rycht I ciaif
Of you mercy, as ye wold mercy hiiif
Off God our Lord, quh>^ ntercyls itifbnelt
Gels bofoire till his workls, we may persnlf,
To thamo quhots hand la with mjrcy ar repleit.
Now to conclude with word is compendious ;
Wald God my ton 5 waid to my will roapnnd,
Ami tfik my spuich was so facundioujj
That 1 was full of retaoxtt teruiys jocund !
Than suid my lufe at raotr length bo expound,
Than my cunnylng can to you hdr declair ;
Forthfa my style Enoruetly compmd,
Kschangs my pen your elrb to truble main
Gn to my di W with humm'll reverence,
Thou buny bill, buth rude and imperfeyte ;
Go, nocht wiU forgh flattery to her presence,
As Is of falset the cu^tome use and ryte ;
Causa me tiocht Bam that evir I the Indytc
Na ttwe my travell, turning aJlln Tat**? ;
Bot wiLh one faithful hairt, in word and wryte,
Dedair my mind and bring me joy agaric
My name quha list to knavr, let him tak tent
Vrwo this litlill verse nixt presedenu"
It only remains to be mentioned that the name of George Bansatyne hat boon
appropriately adopted by a company of Scottbh literary antiquaries, interested,
like him, in the pre se r v a tion' of each curious memorial* of the taste of past ages,
as well as such monuments of history, as might otherwise run the hazard of total
perdition.
BARBOUR, Jomf , a name of which Scotland has just occasion to be proud,
was Archdeacon of Aberdeen in the later part of the fourteenth century. There
Digitized by
Google
134 JOHN BARBOUR.
hat been much idle co n t r over sy as to the date of his birth ; while all that is
known with historic certainty, may be related in a single sentence. As he was
an archdeacon in 1357, and as, by the canon law, no man, without a dispensa-
tion, can attain that rank under the age of twenty-fire, he was probably born be-
fore the year 1332. There is considerable probability that he was above the
age of twenty-fire in 1 357, for not only is that date not mentioned as the year
of his attaining the rank of archdeacon, but in the same year he is found exer-
cising a very important political trust, which we can scarcely suppose to hare been
confided to a man of slender age, or scanty experience. This was the duty of
a commissioner from the Bishop of Aberdeen, to meet with other commissioners
at Edinburgh, concerning the ransom of David IL, who was then a prisoner in
England.
As to the parentage or birth-place of Barbour, we have only similar conjec-
tures. Besides the probability of his baring been a native of the district in
which he afterwards obtained high clerical rank, it can be shown that there were
individuals of his name, in and about the town of Aberdeen, who might have
been his father. Thus, in 1309, Robert Bruce granted a charter to Robert Bar-
bour, " of the lands of Craigie, within the shirefdom of Forfar, quhilk sumtyme
were Joannis de Baliolo." There is also mention, in the Index of Charters,
of a tenement in the Castle-street of Aberdeen, which, at a period remotely
antecedent to 1360, belonged to Andrew Barbour. The name, which appears
to have been one of that numerous class derived from trades, is also found in per-
sons of the same era, who were connected with the southern parts of Scotland.
In attempting the biography of an individual who lived four or five centuries
ago, and whose life was commemorated by no contemporary, all that can be ex-
pected is a few unconnected, and perhaps not very interesting facts. It is
already established that Barbour, in 1357, was Archdeacon of the cathedral of
Aberdeen, and fulfilled a high trust imposed upon him by his bishop. It is
equally ascertained that, in the same year, he travelled, with three scholars in
his company, to Oxford, for purposes connected with study. A safe-conduct
granted to him by Edward IIL, August 23d, at the request of David II., conveys
this information in the following terms : " Veniendo, cum tribus scholaribus in
comitiva sua, in regnum nostrum Angliae, causa studendi in unirersitate Oxonis
et ibidem actus scholasticos exercendo, morando, exinde in Scotiam ad propria
redeundo." It might have been supposed that Barbour only officiated in this
expedition as tutor to the three scholars ; but that he was himself bent on study
at the university, is proved by a second safe-conduct, granted by the same mon-
arch, November 6th, 1364, in the following terms : "To Master John Barbour,
Archdeacon of Aberdeen, with four knights (equite*), coming from Scotland,
by land or sea, into England, to study at Oxford, or elsewhere, as he may
think proper." As also from a third, bearing date November 30th, 1368, " To
Master John Barbour, with two valets and two horses, to come into Eng-
land, and travel through the same, to the other dominions of the king, versus
Franciam, cauta Hudiendi, and of returning again." It would thus appear that
Barbour, even after that he had attained a high ecclesiastical dignity, found it
agreeable or necessary to spend several winters at Oxford in study. When we
recollect that at this time there was no university in Scotland, and that a man of
such literary habits as Barbour could not fail to find himself at a loss even for
the use of a library in his native country, we are not to wonder at his occasional
pilgrimages to the illustrious shrine of learning on the banks of the Isis. Or
the 16th of October, 1635, be received another safe-conduct from Edward IIL,
peimitting him " to come into England and travel throughout that kingdom,
cum sex sociis suis equitibus, usque Sanctum Dionisium ;" i. e. with six knights
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BARBOUR. 135
in company, to St Denis in France. Such slight notices suggest curious and in-
teresting views of the manners of that early time. We are to understand from
them, that Barbour always travelled in a very dignified manner, being sometimes
attended by four knights and sometimes by no fewer than six, or at least, by two
mounted servants. A man accustomed to such state might be the better able
to compose a chivalrous epic like " the Bruce."
There is no other authentic document regarding Barbour till the year 1373,
when his name appears in the list of Auditors of Exchequer for that year, being
then described as " Clericus Probationis domus domini nostri Regis ;" t. c ap-
parently-— Auditor of the comptroller's accounts for the royal household. This,
however, is too obscure and solitary an authority to enable us to conclude that
be bore an orhce under the king. Hume of Godscroft, speaking of " the Brace's
book," says : " As I am informed, the book was penned by a man of good know-
ledge and learning, named Master John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeene, foi
which work he had a yearly pension out of the exchequer during his life, which
he gave to the hospitall of that towne, and to which it is allowed and paid still
in our dayes*" 1 This fact, that a pension was given him for writing his book,
is authenticated by an unquestionable document In the Rotuli Ballivorum Bur-
gi de Aberdonia for 1471, the entry of the discharge for this royal donation
bears that it was expressly given " for the compilation of the book of the Deeds
of King Robert the First," referring to a prior statement of this circumstance in
the more ancient rolls : — " Et Decano et Capitulo Abirdonensi percipienti an-
nuatim viginti solidos pro anniversario quondam Magistri Johannis Barberi, pro
compilatione libri gestorum Regis Roberti "primi, ut patet in antiquis Rotulis de
anno Compoti, xx. a." The first notice we have of Barbour receiving a pension
is dated February 18th, 1390 ; and although this period was only about two
months before the death of Robert the Second, it appears from the rolls that to
that monarch the poet was indebted for the favour. In the roll for April 26th,
1398, this language occurs: — " Quam recolendie memorie quondam dominus
Robertas secundus, rex Scottorum, dedit, concessit, et carta sua connxmavit quon-
dam Johanni Barbere archediacono Aberdonensi," &c — In the roll dated June
3d, 1424, the words are these : — " Decano et capitulo ecclesias cathedrals Aber-
donensis percipientibus annuatim viginti solidos de firmis dicti burgi pr\> anni-
versario quondam magistri Johannis Barbar pro compilatione libri degestis
Regis Roberti Brwise, ex concessione regis Roberti secundi, in plenam solucionem
dicte pensionis," &c Barbour's pension consisted of £10 Scots from the cus-
toms of Aberdeen, and of 20 shillings from the rente or burrow-mails of the
same city. The first sum was limited to " the life of Barbour ;" the other to
" his assignees whomsoever, although he should have assigned it in the way of
mortification." Hume of Godscroft and others are in a mistake in supposing
that he appropriated this sum to an hospital (for it appears from the accounts
•f the great chamberlain that he left it to the chapter of the cathedral church of
Aberdeen, for the express purpose of having mass said for his soul annually
after his decease : " That the dean and canons of Aberdeen, for the time being,
also the chapter and other ministers officiating at the same time in the said
church, shall annually for ever solemnly celebrate once in the year an anniver-
sary for the soul of the said umquhile John." Barbour's anniversary, it is supposed
continued till the reformation ; and then the sum allowed for it reverted to the
crown.
All that is further known of Barbour is, that he died towards the close of 1395.
I This appears from the Chartulary of Aberdeen, and it is the last year in which
the payment of his pension of JClO stands on the record.
> History of the Dougla
Digitized by
Google
135 JOHN BARBOUR.
"The Bruce/' which Barbour himself informs us he wrote in the year 1875,
it a metrical history of Robert the First — his exertions and achievements fertile
recovery of the independence of Scotland, and the principal transactions of his
reign. As Barbour flourished in the age immediately following that of his hero,
he must have enjoyed the advantage of hearing from eye-witnesses narratives of
the war of liberty. As a history, his work is of good authority ; he himself
boasts of its toothfaHness ; and the simple and straight-forward way in which
the story is told goes to indicate its general veracity. Although, however, the
object of the author was mainly to give a toothfart history of the life and tran-
sactions of Robert the Bruce, the work is far from being destitute of poetical
feeling or rhythmical sweetness and harmony. The lofty sentiments and vivid
descriptions with which it abounds, prove the author to have been fitted by feeling
and by principle, as well as by situation, for the task which he undertook. Hh
genius has lent truth all the charms that are usually supposed to belong to fiction
The horrors of war are softened by strokes of tenderness that make us equally
in love with the hero and the poet In battle painting, Barbour as eminent :
the battle of Bannockburn is described with a minuteness, spirit, and fervency,
worthy of the day. The following is a part of the description of that noble en-
gagement, and presents a striking picture of a mortal combat before the intro-
duction of gunpowder made warfare less a matter of brute force.
with wapynys stalwart of stele
They dang upon, with all thalr myeht
Their feyls resawyt wele, Ik hycht,
With swerdis, sports, and with mate
The battaiU thair sa feloun was,
And ewa rycht spilling of b1ud 9
That on the erd the sloussls stud.
The Scottsmen sa weill thaim bar,
And swa gret slauchter maid thai thar,
And fra sa fele the lyvis rewyt,
That all the feld Mudy was lewyt.
That tyme thir thre bataiOs wer,
All syd be syd, fechtand weill ner,
Thar myeht men her mony dint,
And wapynys apon armars stym,
And se tumble knychts and steds,
And mony rych and reale weds.
Defoullyt foully undre fete,
Sum held on loft; sum tynt the snet.
A lang quhill thus fechtand thai war ;
That men na noyis myeht her thair;
Men hard noucht, but granys, and dynts
That flew fyr, as men flayls on flynta.
Thai faucht iikano sa egrely,
That thai maid na noyis na cry,
But dang on othyr at thair myeht,
With wapnys that war burnyst brycht
• • ♦
Whar myeht men se men felly fycht,
And men, that worthy war and wychtt
Do mony worthy wassellage.
Whai faucht as thai war in a rage.
For quhen the Scotts archery
Saw thair fayis sa sturdely
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BABBOUB.
137
Stand into bdtafll them agayne ;
With all thair mycht, and all thair mayne,
Thai layid on, as men out off wyL
And quhar thai, with full strak, mycht hyt,
Thar mycht na armur stynt thair strak.
Thai to fruchyt that thai mycht ourtak.
And with axys such dusches gave,
That thai helmys, and heds, clave.
And thair fayls rycht bardely
Met thaim, and dung on them douchtely.
With wapyngs that war styth off stele.
Thar wes the bataill strekyt weilL
Sa gret dyn that wes off dynts,
As wapyngs apon armur stynts;
And off spers sa gret bresting ;
And sic thrang, and sic thrysting ;
Sic gyrning, granyng ; and sa gret
A noyis, as thai gan othyr beit:
And ensenyeys on ilka aid ;
Gewand, and takand, wounds wid ;
That it wes hidwyss for to her.— Book xiii. I. 14 & 1S8.
The apostrophe to Freedom, after the painful description of the slavery te
which Scotland was reduced by Edward, is in a style of poetical feeling very
uncommon in that and many subsequent ages, and has been quoted with high
praise by the most distinguished Scottish historians and critics : —
A ! fredome is a nobill thing !
Fredome mayse man to haiff.likingl
Fredome all solace to man gifts:
He levys at ese that frely levys!
A noble hart may haiff nane ese,
Na ellys nocht that may him plese,
Gyff fredome failythe : for fre liking
Is yearnyt our all othir thing
Na he, that ay base levyt fre.
May nocht knaw weill the propyrte,
The angyr, na the wrechyt dome,
That is cowplyt to foule thyrldome.
Bot gyff he had assayit it,
Than all perquer he suld it wyt ;
And suld think fredome mar to pryse
Than all the gold in warld that is.i— Book !. 1. 285.
i Some readers may perhaps arrive at the sense of this fine passage more readily through
the medium of the following paraphrase :—
Ah, Freedom is a noble thing,
And can to life a relish bring.
Freedom all solace to man elves ;
He lives at ease that freely lives.
A noble heart may have no ease,
Nor aught beside that may it please,
If freedom foil— for 'tis the choice,
More than the chosen, man enjoys.
Ah, he that ne'er yet lived in thrall,
Knows not the weary pains which gall
The limbs, the soul, of him who 'plains
In slavery's foul and festering chains!
If these he knew, 1 ween right soon
He would seek back the precious boon
Of freedom, which he then would prize
More than all wealth beneath the akJes.
Digitized by
Google.
138
JOHN BARBOUiL
" Barbour, n says an eminent critic in Scottish poetical literature, M was evident-
ly skilled in such branches of knowledge as were then cultivated, and his learn-
ing was so well regulated as to conduce to the real improvement of his mind:
the liberality of his views, and the humanity of his sentiments, appear occasion-
ally to have been unconfined by the narrow boundaries of his own age. He has
drawn various illustrations from ancient history, and from the stories of romance,
but has rarely displayed his erudition by deciding his verses with the names of
ancient authors: the distichs of Cato, 8 and the spurious productions of Dares
Phrygius, and Dictys Cretensis, are the only profane books to which he formally
refers. He has borrowed more than one illustration from Statius, who was the
favourite classic of those times, and who likewise appears to have been the fa-
vourite of Barbour : the more chaste and elegant style of Virgil and Horace
were not so well adapted to the prevalent taste as the strained thoughts and
gorgeous diction of Statius and Claudian. The manner in which he has inci-
dentally discussed the subject of astrology and necromancy, may be specified as
not a little creditable to his good sense. It is well known that these branches
of divination were assiduously cultivated during the ages of intellectual darkness.
The i absurdity of astrology and necromancy he has not openly attempted to ex-
pose ; for as the opinions of the many, however unfounded in reason, must not
be too rashly stigmatized, this might have been too bold and decided a step. Of
the possibility of predicting events he speaks with the caution of a philosopher ;
but the following passage may be considered as a sufficient indication <*f His de-
liberate sentiments :
And sen thai ar in sic wenyng,
For owtyne osrtante off witting,
Me think quha sayis,he knawis tl.ingis
To cum, he makys great gabingis.
To form such an estimate, required a mind capable of resistiug a strong torrent
of prejudice ; nor is it superfluous to remark, that in an age of much higher re-
finement, Dryden suffered himself to be deluded by the prognostications of
judicial astrology. It was not, however, to be expected that Barbour should on
every occasion evince a decided superiority to the general spirit of the age to
which he belonged. His terrible imprecation on the person who betrayed Sir
Christopher Seton, " In hell condampnyt mot he be ! " ought not to have been
uttered by a Christian priest His detestation of the treacherous and cruel King
Edward, induced him to lend a credulous ear to the report of his consulting an
infernal spirit The misfortunes which attended J3ruce at almost every step of
his early progress, he attributes to his sacrilegious act of slaying Comyn at the
high altar. He supposes that the women and children who assisted in supply-
ing the brave defenders of Berwick with arrows and stones, were protected from
injury by a miraculous interposition. Such instances of superstition or unchari
table zeal are not to be viewed as marking the individual : gross superstition
with its usual concomitants, was the general spirit of the tune ; and the devia-
tions from the ordinary track are to be traced in examples of liberal feeling or
enlightened judgment" 3
One further quotation from the Scottish contemporary and rival of Chaucer
may perhaps be admitted by the reader. As the former refer, one to a lofty
incident, the other to a beautiful sentiment, the following is one of the slight
and minute stories with which the poet fills up his narrative :—
* And Catone sayis us In his wryt
To fenyhe foly quhile is wyt— The Brytce, 4to, p 9 13.
9 Article Baaaooa, written by Dr Irving, in Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th edition.
Digitized by
Google
ALEXANDER BARCLAY. 139
The king has hard a woman cry;
He askyt quhat that wes in hy.
u It is the layndar, Schyr," said ane,
" That her child-ill rycht now has tane,
* And mon leve now behind ws her;
•Tharfor scho makys yone Iwill cher."
The king said, <* Certis it war pite
* That scho in that poynt left suld be ;
* For certis I trow thar Is na man
* That be ne will rew a woman than."
Hiss ost all thar arestyt he,
And gert a tent sone stantit be,
And gert hyr gang in hastily,
And othyr wemen to be hyr by,
Quhill scho wes delier, he bad,
And syne furth on his wayis raid :
And how scho furth suld cary it be,
Or euir he furth fur, ordanyt be.
This wes a full gret curtasy,
That swilk a king, and sa mighty,
Gert his men duell on this maner
Bot for a pouir lauender.
No one can fail to remark that, while the incident is in the highest degree hon-
ourable to Bruce, showing that the gentle heart may still be known by gentle
deed, so also is Barbour entitled to the credit of humane feelings, from the way
in which he had detailed and commented upon the transaction.
Barbour was the author of another considerable work, which has unfortunately
perished, litis was a chronicle of Scottish history, probably in the manner of
that by Andrew Winton.
BARCLAY, Alexander, a distinguished writer of the English tongue at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, is known to have been a native of Scotland
only by very obscure evidence. He spent tome of his earliest yean at Croydon,
in Surrey, and it is conjectured that he received his education at one of the
English Universities. In the year 1508, he was a prebendary of the collegiate
church of St Mary, at Ottery, in Devonshire. He was afterwards a Monk, first
of the order of St Benedict at Ely, and latterly of the order of St Francis at
Canterbury. While in this situation, and having the degree of Doctor of Divi-
nity, he published an English translation of the " Mirrour of Good Manners, " (a
treatise compiled in Latin by Dominyke Mancyn,) for the use of the " juvent of
England. " After the Reformation, Barciay accepted a ministerial charge under
the new religion, as vicar of Much-Badew in Essex. In 1546, he was vicar of
Wokey in Somersetshire, and in 1552 be was presented by the Dean and Chap-
ter of London to the rectory of Allhallows in Lombard Street Having reached
an advanced age, he died in June this year, at Croydon in Surrey, where he
was buried.
Barclay published a great number of books, original and translated, and is
allowed by the most intelligent enquirers into early English literature to have
done more for the improvement of the language than any of his contemporaries.
His chief poetical work is " the Ship of Foolus," which was written in imitation
of a German work entitled, "Das Narren Sekif," published io 1494. "The
Ship of FooJes," which was first printed in 1509, describes a vessel laden with
all sorts of absurd persona, though Utere seems to have been no end in view but
to bring them into one place, so that they might be described, as the beasts were
bro'i?ht before Adam in order to be named. We shall transcribe one passage
Digitized by
Google
HO
JOHN BARCLAY, A.M.
from this work, as a specimen of the English style of Barclay : it is a curious
contemporary character of King James IV. of Scotland.
And, ye Christen princes, whosoever ye be,
If ye be destitute of a noble captayne,
Take James of Scotland for his audacitie
And proved manhode, if ye will laude attaine:
Let him have the forwarde : have ye no disdayue
Nor indignation ; for never king was borne
That of ought of waure can shaw the unco rue.
For if that once he take the speare in hand
Agaynst these Turkes strongly with it to ride,
None shall be able his stroke for to withstande
Nor before his face so hardy to abide.
Yet this his manhode increaseth not his pride ;
But ever sheweth meeknes and humilitie,
In worde or dede to hye and lowe degree.
Barclay also made a translation of Sallust's History of the Jugurthine wai v
which was published in 1557, five years after his death, and is one of the earli-
est specimens of English translation from t!\e classics.
BARCLAY, Joicr, A.M. was the founder of a religious sect in Scotland, gene-
rally named Bereans, but sometimes called from the name of this individual,
Barclayans. The former title derived its origin from the habit of Mr Barclay,
in always making an appeal to the Scriptures, in vindication of any doctrine he
advanced from the pulpit, or which was contained in his writings. The perfec-
tion of the Scriptures, or of the Book of divine revelation, was the fundamental
article of his system ; at least this was what he himself publicly declared upon
all occasions, and the same sentiments are still entertained by bis followers. In
the Acts of the Apostles, xvii. 1 0. the Bereans are thus mentioned, " These were
more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all
readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether tnose tilings were
so." These words were frequently quoted by Mr Barclay. It ought to be ob-
served, however, that originally it was not a name of reproach invented by the
malevolent part of the public, with the design of holding up Mr Barclay and his
associates to contempt, but was voluntarily assumed by them, to distinguish them
from other sects of professed Christians.
Mr Barclay was born in 1731. His father, Mr Ludovic Barclay, was a far-
mer in the parish of Muthill, in the county of Perth. Being at an early age
designed by his parents for the church, he was sent to school, and received the
best education which that part of the country could afford. The name of his
master is now forgotten, but if we are to judge from the eminent proficiency of
the pupil, we must infer, that he was a good scholar and an excellent teacher,
and was well aware of the absolute necessity and advantages of being well
grounded in the elements of classical learning. Respectable farmers, such as
Mr Barclay's father, had a laudable ambition in affording to their sons an op-
portunity of being instructed in the learned languages, and to do the parish
schoolmasters justice, many of them were eminently qualified for performing the
task which they had undertaken.
Young Barclay was sent by his father to St Andrews, and was enrolled as a stu-
dent in that University ; where he regularly attended the literary and philosophi-
cal classes, and having submitted to the usual examinations, he took the degree of
AM. At the commencement of the subsequent session, he entered the New Divinity,
or St Mary's College, a seminary in which theology alone is taught Nothing
very particular occurred during his attendance at the Hall, as it is generally
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
JOHN BARCLAY, A.M. Ul
called. He was uniformly regular in his private conduct, and though consti-
tutionally of very impetuous passions, and a fervid imagination, at no time of
his life was he ever seduced into the practice of what was immoral or vicious.
The Christian principles, with which he seems to have been impressed very early
in life, afforded him sufficient protection against the allurements or snares to
which he was exposed. He prosecuted his studies with the most unremitted in-
dustry, and with great care prepared the discourses prescribed by the professor,
and publicly delivered in the HalL •
While he attended the lectures on divinity, the University of St Andrews, and
indeed the Church of Scotland in general, were placed in a very unpleasant si-
tuation, by the agitation of a question which originated with Dr Archibald
Campbell, professor of Church History in St Mary's College. He maintained
u that the knowledge of the existence of God was derived from Revelation, not
from Nature." This was long reckoned one of the errors of Socinus, and no
one in Scotland, before Dr Campbell's time, had ever disputed the opinion that
was generally current, and consequently esteemed orthodox. It was well known
that the Doctor was not a Socinian, and did not favour any of the other dog-
mas of that sect. The constitutional tendency of his mind was metaphysical,
and he certainly was possessed of great acuteness, which enabled him to perceive
on what point his opponents were most vulnerable, and where they laid them-
selves open to attack. He published his sentiments without the least re-
serve, and was equally ready to enter upon a vindication of them. He considered
his view of the subject as a foundation necessary to be laid in order to demon-
strate the necessity of revelation. A whole host of opponents volunteered their
services to strangle in the birth such dangerous sentiments. Innumerable pam-
phlets rapidly made their appearance, and the hue and cry was so loud, and cer-
tain persons so clamorous, that the ecclesiastical courts thought that they could no
longer remain silent Dr Campbell was publicly prosecuted on account of his here-
tical opinions, but after long litigation the matter was compromised, and the only
effect it produced was, that the students at St Andrews in general became more
zealous defenders of the Doctor's system, though they durst not avow it so openly.
Among others, Mr Barclay with his accustomed zeal, and with all the energies
of his juvenile but ardent mind, had warmly espoused Dr Campbell's system.
Ix>ng before he left College he was noted as one of his most open and avowed
partisans. These principles he never deserted, and in his view of Christianity
it formed an important part of the system of revealed truth. It must not be
imagined, however, that Mr Barclay slavishly followed, or adopted all Dr Camp-
bell's sentiments. Though they were both agreed that a knowledge of the true
God was derived from revelation and not from nature, yet they differed upon
almost every other point of systematic divinity. Mr Barclay was early, and
continued through life to be a high predestinarian, or what is technically deno-
minated a supralapsarian, while Dr Campbell, if one may draw an inference
from some of his illustrations, leaned to Arminianism, and doubtless was not a
decided Calvinist
Mr Barclay having delivered the prescribed discourses with the approbation of
the professor of Divinity, he now directed his views to obtain license as a preacher
in the establishment, and took the requisite steps. Having delivered the usual series
of exercises with the entire approbation of his judges, he was, on the 27th Sep-
tember, 1759, licensed by the presbytery of Auchterarder as a preacher of the gos-
pel. He was not long without employment Mr Jobson, then minister of Errol,
near Perth, was advanced in years, in an infirm state of health, and required
an assistant Mr Barclay, from his popularity as a preacher, and the reputa-
tion he enjoyed through a *great part of Perthshire, as well as of Angus and
Digitized by
Google
U2
JOHN BARCLAY, A.M.
Means, easily obtained this situation. Here he remained for three or foui
yean, until a rupture with his principal obliged him to leave it Mr Jobson
was what may be called, of the old school. He warmly espoused (as a great many
clergymen of the Church of Scotland in those days did), the system of the
Marrow of Modern Divinity, a book written by Edward Fisher, an English dis-
senter, about the middle of the seventeenth century. This work had a vast
circulation throughout Scotland. The celebrated Mr Thomas Boston of Ettrick,
when visiting his parish ministerially, casually found it in the house of one of
his parishioners. He carried it home, was a warm admirer of the system of
divinity it contained, and was at the labour of writing notes upon it Boston's
name secured its success among a numerous class of readers. For many years
this book occasioned a most serious commotion in the Church of Scotland, which
is generally called, " The Marrow Controversy." It was, indeed, the remote
cause of that great division, which has since been styled the Secession.
But there was another cause for the widening of this unfortunate breach.
The well known Mr John Glass, minister of Tealing, near Dundee, had pub-
lished in 1727, a work entitled, " The Testimony of the King of Martyrs. »
With the exception of the Cameronians, this gentleman was the first dissenter
from the Church of Scotland since the devolution, and it is worthy of remark
that the founders of the principal sects were all originally cast out of the church.
Mr Glass was an admirer of the writings of the most celebrated English Indepen-
dents, (of Dr John Owen in particular) and of tbeir form of church government
Mr Barclay, who was no independent, heartily approved of many of his senti-
ments respecting the doctrines of the Gospel, and as decidedly disapproved of
others, as shall be mentioned in the sequeL At no time were disputes carried
on with greater violence between Christians of different denominations, Mr
Barclay had a system of his own, and agreed with none of the parties; but this,
if possible, rendered him more obnoxious to Mr Jobson. Much altercation took
place between them in private. Mr Barclay publicly declared his sentiments
from the pulpit, Mr Jobson did the same in defence of himself, so that a rupture
became unavoidable.
About the time of Mr Barclay's leaving Errol, Mr Anthony Dow, minister
of Fettercairn, in the presbytery of Fordoun, found himself unfit for the
full discharge of his duties. He desired his son, the Rev. David Dow, theu
minister of the parish of Dron, in the presbytery of Perth, to use his endeavour
to procure him an assistant Mr Dow, who, we believe, was a fellow student
of Mr Barclay at St Andrews, was perfectly well acquainted with his talents
and character, and the cause of his leaving Enrol, immediately made offer to
him of being assistant to his father. This he accepted, and he commenced his
labours in the beginning of June, 1763. What were Mr Anthony Dow's pecu-
liar theological sentiments we do not know, but those of Mr David Dow were
not very different from Mr Barclay's. Here he remained for nine years, which
he often declared to have been the most happy, and considered to have been
the most useful period of his life.
Mr Barclay was of a fair, and in his youth, of a very florid complexion. .He
then looked younger than he really was. The people of Fettercairn were at
first greatly prejudiced against him on account of his youthful appearance. But
this was soon forgotten. His fervid manner, in prayer especially, and at diffe-
rent parts of almost every sermon, ri vetted the attention, and impressed the
minds of his audience to such a degree, that it was almost impossible to lose the
memory of it His popularity as a preacher became so great at Fettercairn,
that anything of the like kind is seldom to be met with in the history of the Church
of Scotland. The parish church being an old fashioned building, had rafters
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BARCLAY, A.M.
143
•crow ; these were crowded with hearers ; — the sashes of the windows were taken
out to accommodate the multitude who could not gain admittance. During die
whole period of his settlement at Fettercairu, he had regular hearers who flocked
to him from ten or twelve of the neighbouring parishes. If an opinion could
be formed of what his manner had been in his youth, and at his prime', from
what it was a year or two before he died, it must have been vehement, passion-
ate, and impetuous to an uncommon degree. At the time to which we allude,
ue heard him deliver in bis own chapel at Edinburgh, a prayer immediately
after the sermon, in which he had alluded to some of the corruptions of the
Church of Rome ; the impression it made upon our mind was of the most vivid
nature ; and, we are persuaded, was alike in every other member of the congre-
gation. The following sentence we distinctly remember, " We pray, we plead,
we cry, O Lord, that thou wouldst dash out of the hand of Antichrist, that cup of
abominations, wherewith she hath poisoned the nations, and give unto her, and
unto them, the cup of salvation, by drinking whereof they may inherit everlast-
ing life." But the words themselves are nothing unless they were pronounced
with his own tone and manner.
During his residence at Fettercairn he did not confine his labours to his
public ministrations in the pulpit, but visited from house to house, was the friend
and adviser of all who were at the head of a family, and entered warmly into
whatever regarded their interests. He showed the most marked attention to
children and to youth ; and when any of the household were seized with sick-
ness or disease, he spared no pains in giving tokens of his sympathy and ten-
derness, and administered consolation to the afflicted. He was very assiduous
in discharging those necessary and important duties, which he thought were
peculiarly incumbent upon a country clergyman. Such long continued and
uninterrupted exertions were accompanied with the most happy effects. A taste
for religious knowledge, or what is the same, the reading and study of the
Bible, began to prevail to a great extent ; the morals of the people were im-
proved, and vice and profaneness, as ashamed, were made to hide their heads.
Temperance, sobriety, and regularity of behaviour, sensibly discovered them-
selves throughout all ranks.
Mr Barclay had a most luxuriant fancy, a great liking for poetry, and possess*
ed considerable facility of versification. His taste, however, was far from being
correct or chaste, and his imagination was little under the management of a sound
judgment. Many of his pieces are exceedingly desultory in their nature, but
occasionally discover scintillations of genius. The truth probably Is, that he
neither corrected nor bestowed pains on any of bis productions in prose or
verse. From the ardour of his mind, they were generally the result of a single
effort. At least this appears particularly the case in his shorter poems. He
does not seem to have perceived or known that good writing, whether in prose
or verse, is an art, and not to be acquired without much labour and practice,
as well as a long and repeated revisal of what may have been written. Mr Bar-
clay's compositions in both styles, with two or three exceptions, appear to have
merely been thrown forth upon the spur of the moment As soon as written,
they were deposited among his manuscripts, and, instead of being attentively
examined by him, and with a critical eye, were shortly after submitted to the
public. Besides his works in prose, he published a great many thousand verses
on religious subjects.
He had composed a Paraphrase of the whole book of Psalms, part of which
was published in 1766. To this was prefixed, " A Dissertation on the best
means of interpreting that portion of the canon of Scripture." His views upon
this subject were peculiar. He was of opinion that, in all the Psalms which are
Digitized by
—
144 JOHN BARCLAY, A.M.
in the first person, the speaker is Christ, and not David nor any other mere man,
and that the other Psalms describe the situation of the Church of God, sometimes
in prosperity, sometimes in adversity, and finally triumphing over all its enemies.
This essay is characterized by uncommon vigour of expression, yet in some
places with considerable acrimony. The presbytery of Fordoun took great of-
fence at this publication, and summoned Mr Barclay to appear at their bar. He
did so, and defended himself with spirit and intrepidity. His opinions were
not contrary to any doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, so that he
could not even be censured by them. The truth was, that they had taken great
offence at the popularity of Mr Barclay as a preacher, and it was only in this
way that they could avenge his superiority over themselves. Being disappointed
in establishing heresy, their rancour became more violent, and they determined
to give him as much annoyance as they possibly could. Even the names of the
members of the presbytery of Fordoun are now forgotten. None of them were
distinguished for remarkable talents of any kind, and they have long lain mute
and inglorious. But at tins time they possessed an authority, which they resolv-
ed to exercise to the utmost stretch. Having engaged in the invidious and
ignoble employment of heresy hunting, they seem to have been aware, that it
was necessary to proceed with caution. The presbytery have the charge of the
spiritual concerns of all the individuals within their bounds. They have a right
to inspect the orthodoxy of the doctrine taught, as well as the moral conduct
of clergymen and laymen. It is their especial business to examine narrowly into
the behaviour of the former class. Having pounced upon Mr Barclay, they
made the most they could of his supposed offence, which at the worst, was only a
venial error.
Mr Barclay, who being naturally of a frank, open, and ingenuous disposition,
had no idea of concealing his opinions, not only continued to preach the same
doctrines which were esteemed heretical by the presbytery, but published them
in a small work, entitled, " Rejoice evermore, or Christ All in AIL" This ob-
stinacy, as they considered it, irritated them to a very high degree. They drew
up a warning against the dangerous doctrines that he preached, and ordered it
to be read publicly in the church of Fettercairn after sermon, and before pro-
nouncing the blessing, by one of their own members, expressly appointed
for that purpose on a specified day, which was accordingly done. This at-
tempt to ruin Mr Barclay's character and usefulness, and deprive him of th»
means of obtaining daily bread, contained an enumeration of his supposed er-
rors, which they were cautioned to avoid, and strictly enjoined not to receive.
Mr Barclay viewed their conduct with indifference mingled with contempt. At
a former meeting of presbytery, the points of difference had been argued in
public at great length, and he is generally allowed to have come off victo-
rious. He was, it is confessed, too keen in his temper to listen, with sedate
composure, to the arguments of an opponent, when engaged in a private
debate. But his talents for controversy were of a superior order. He had a
clear understanding, a tenacious memory, and a ready elocution ; and at no time
of his life did he decline an argument. No effect of any kind resulted from the
warning to the people of Fettercairn, who were unanimous in their approbation
of Mr Barclay's doctrine. He continued during Mr Dow's life-time to instruct
the people of his parish, and conducted his weekly examinations to the great
profit of those who gave attendance.
In 1769, he published one of the largest of his treatises, entitled, " Without
Faith without God, or an appeal to God concerning his own existence." This
was a defence of similar sentiments respecting the evidence in favour of the ex-
istence of God, which were entertained by Dr Campbell already mentioned. Th*
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN BARCLAY, A.M.
145
illustrations an entirely Calvin isticaL This essay is not very methodical. It
contains, however, a great many acute observations, and sarcastic remarks upon
the systems of those who have adopted the generally current notions respecting
natural religion. The author repeatedly and solemnly declares, that he attacks
doctrine* and not men— that he has no quarrel with any man, nor means to
hurt any one. The metaphysical arguments in favour of his side of the question,
as well as what may not improperly be called the historical proofs, he has left
to others, esteeming such kind of evidence as of small value in regard to settling
the point at issue. Hu object is to prove from the Scriptures, that the know-
ledge of God comes not by nature, innate ideas, intuition, reason, &c but only
by Revelation. But we must refer to the treatise itself, it being impossible in
this place to give even an abridgment of his reasoning. It may be observed,
however, that he exposes in the most unreserved language, and denies, that the
merely holding that there is a first* original, unoriginated cause of all things,
&c. is the same with the knowledge of God, whose character and works are re-
vealed in Scripture.
In the course of the same year, 1769, he addressed a letter on the " Internal
Generation of the Son of God," to Messrs Smith and Ferrier. These two gen-
tlemen had been clergymen in the church of Scotland. They published their
reasons of separation from the established church. They had adopted all the
sentiments of Mr Glass, who was a most strict independent, and both of them
died in the Glassite communion. The late Dr Dalgliesh of Peebles had, about
the time of their leaving the church, published a new theory respecting the son-
ship of Christ, and what is not a little singular, it had the merit of originality,
and had never before occurred to any theologian. He held the tri-personality
of Deity, but denied the eternal Sonship of the second person of the Godhead,
and was of opinion that this filiation only took place when the divine nature
was united to the human, in the person of Christ, Immanuel, God >\ith us. Novel
as this doctrine was, all the Scottish Independents, with a very few exceptions,
embraced it. The difference between Dalgliesh and the Arians consists in this,
that the second person of the Trinity, according to him, is God, equal with the
Father, whilst the latter maintain in a certain sense his supreme exaltation, yet
they consider him as subordinate to the Father. Mr Barclay's letter states very
clearly the Scriptural arguments usually adduced in favour of the eternal gene-
ration of the Son of God. It is written with great moderation, and in an ex-
cellent spirit.
In 1771, he published a letter, " On the Assurance of Faith," addressed to a
gentleman who was a member of Mr Cudworth's congregation in London. Cud-
worth was the person who made a distinguished figure in defending the cele-
brated Mr Hervey against the acrimonious attack of Mr Robert Sandeman, who
was a Glassite. Excepting in some peculiar forms of expression, Cudworth's
views of the assurance of faith did not materially differ from Mr Barclay's.
There appeared also in the same year, " A Letter on Prayer," addressed to an
Independent congregation in Scotland.
The Rev. Anthony Dow, minister of Fettercairn, died in 1772. The pres-
bytery of Fordoun seized this opportunity of gratifying their spleen ; they pro-
hibited Mr Barclay from preaching in the kirk of Fettercairn, and used all their
influence to prevent him from being employed, not only within their bounds,
which lie in what is called the Meatus, but they studied to defame him in all
quarters, The clergy of the neighbouring district, that is, in Angus, were much
more friendly. They were ready to admit him into their pulpits, and he gene-
rally preached every Lord's day, during the subsequent autumn, winter, and
spring. Multitudes from all parts of the country crowded to hear him.
i. T
Digitized by
Google
146 ' JOHN BARCLAY, A.M.
The patronage of Fettercairn is in tbe gift of the crown* The parish almost
unanimously favoured Mr Barclay. They were not, however, permitted to hare any
choice, and the Rev. Robert Foote, then minister of Eskdale Muir, was presented.
At the moderation of the call, only three signed in favour of Mr Foote. Tbe
parishioners appealed to the Synod, and from the Synod to the General Assembly,
who ordered Mr Foote to be inducted.
The presbytery carried their hostility against Mr Barclay so far, as to refuse him
a certificate of character, which is always done, as a matter of course, when a preacher
leaves their bounds. He appealed to the Synod, and afterwards to the Assembly,
who found (though he was in no instance aecused of any immorality) that tbe
presbytery were justified in withholding the certificate. He had no alternative, and
therefore left tbe communion of the Church of Scotland.
A great many friends in Edinburgh, who had adopted his peculiar sentiments,
formed themselves into a church, and urged him to become their pastor. The people
of Fettercairn also solicited him to labour in the ministry amongst them ; but for
the present he declined both invitations. Having hitherto held only the status ol
a probationer or licentiate, he visited Newcastle, and was ordained there October
12th, 1773. The certificate of ordination is signed by the celebrated James Murray
of Newcastle, the author of the well-known •' Sermons to Asses ; " which
contain a rich vein of poignant satire, not unworthy of Swift. It was also signed
by Robert Somerville of Weardale, and James Somerville of Swalwell, and Robert
Green, clerk.
His friends at Fettercairn meanwhile erected a place of worship at Sauchyburn,
in tbe immediate neighbourhood, and renewed their application to have him settled
amongst them. But Mr Barclay, conceiving that his sphere of usefulness would be
more extended were he to reside in Edinburgh, gave the preference to the latter.
Mr James M'Rae, having joined Mr Barclay, was ordained minister at Sauchyburn
in spring, 1774. The congregation there, at this time, consisted of from one thou-
sand to twelve hundred members.
Mr Barclay remained in Edinburgh about three years ; and was attended by a
numerous congregation, who had adopted his views of religious truth. But having
a strong desire to disseminate his opinions, he left the church at Edinburgh under the
care of hia elders and deacons, and repaired to London. For nearly two years he preached
there, as well as at Bristol, and other places in England. A church was formed in the
capital. He also established there a debating society, which met weekly in the even-
ing, for the purpose of disputing with any who might be disposed to call his doctrines-
in question. One of those who went with the design of impugning Mr Barclay's
opinions was Mr William Nelson, who eventually became a convert. This gentle-
man had been educated in the Church of England, but, when Mr Barclay came first
to London, had joined the Whitefieldian or Calvinistic Methodists. He afterwards
came to Scotland ; was connected with Mr Barclay ; practised as a surgeon in
Edinburgh, and delivered lectures on chemistry there, for about ten years. He
was a man of considerable abilities; amiable in private life, and of the most unble-
mished character. He was cut off by apoplexy in 1800.
At Edinburgh, Mr Barclay published an edition of his works in three volumes,
including a pretty large treatise on the sin against the Holy Ghost, which, according
to him, is merely unbelief or discrediting the Scripture. In 1783 he published a
small work for the use of the Berean Churches, " The Epistle to the Hebrews
Paraphrased," with a collection of psalms and songs from his other works, accom-
panied with '« A close examination into the truth of several received principles."
Mr Barclay died on the 29th of July, 1798. Being Sabbath, when on his road to
preach, he felt himself rather unwell ; he took a circuitous route to the meeting-
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BARCLAY, M.1). H7
bouse, but finding himself no better, he called at the bouse of one of the members of
bis congregation. In a few minutes after he entered the bouse, while kneeling ia
prayer beside a chair, he expired without a groan, in the sixty- fourth year of his age,
and thirty-ninth of his professional career. His nephew, Dr John Barclay, was
immediately sent for, who declared his death to have been occasioned by apoplexy.
Ue was interred in the Calton Old Burying-ground, Edinburgh, where a monument
has been erected to his memory. Mr Barclay was a very uncommon character, and
made a great impression upon his contemporaries.
There are Berean churches in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Crieff, Kirkaldy, Dundee,
Arbroath, Montrose, Brechin, Fettercaim, and a few other places.
BARCLAY, John, M.D., an eminent lecturer on anatomy, was the nephew of
John Barclay, the Berean, after whom he was named. He was born in 1159, or
1760, at Cairn, near to Drummaquhance, in Perthshire. His father was a respect-
able farmer in that part of tite country, and was characterised by great natural
shrewdness and vivacity. His son, John, was educated at the parish school of
Muthill, and early distinguished himself by his superior powers of mind, and by his
application. Being destined for the church, he, in 1776, repaired to the university
of St Andrews, where he became a successful candidate for a bursary. He made
great proficiency in the Greek language, then taught by the late principal George
Hill, and also discovered a partiality for the study of mathematics, although he does
not appear to have prosecuted this important branch of science. After having
attended the usual preliminary classes at the united college of St Salvador and
St Leonard, Barclay studied divinity in St Mary's, attaching himself to the moderate
party in the church. He studied divinity at St Andrews, under the professor, Dr
Spence, for two or three sessions, but having engaged to teach a school, he found it
more convenient to deliver the prescribed exercises before the professor in Edinburgh,
On one of these occasions there took place a very singular occurrence, which the
Doctor himself used to relate. Having come to Edinburgh for the express purpose
of delivering a discourse in the hall, he waited upon his uncle, who was an excellent
scholar. It was what is called " An Exercise and Addition," or a discourse, in which
the words of the original are criticised — the doctrines they contain illustrated — and
it is concluded by a brief paraphrase. He proposed to read it to his uncle before he
delivered it — and when he was in the act of doing so, his respected relative objected
to a criticism which he had introduced, and endeavoured to show that it was con-
trary to several passages in the writings of the apostle Paul. The doctor had
prepared the exercise with great care, and had quoted the authority of Xenophon in
regard to the meaning of the word. The old man got into a violent passion at his
nephew's obstinacy, and seizing a huge folio that lay on the table, hurled it at the
recusant's head, which it fortunately missed. Barclay, who really had a great
esteem for his uncle, related the anecdote to a clergyman a few days after it happened,
and laughed very heartily at it. Barclay wrote about this time, " A History of all
Religions," but of this no trace was to be found among his manuscripts. Having
delivered with approbation his trial discourses, he obtained license from the Presby-
tery of Dunkeld. Meanwhile he acted as tutor to the two sons of Sir James Campbell,
of Aberuchill, whose daughter, Eleonora, in 1811, became his wife. In 1780 he accom-
panied his pupils to Edinburgh, where he preached occasionally for his friends. The
medical school of Edinburgh was then at the height of its reputation. Cullen's bril-
liant career was drawing to a close, and he was succeeded by the celebrated Dr Gregory.
Dr Black and the second Monro still shed lustre on their respective departments.
Barclay was principally attracted to the anatomical class by the luminous prelections of
Dr Monro, and appears to have thenceforward devoted himself to a complete course
of medical study. In 1796 be took the degree of M.D., choosing as the subject of bis
Digitized by
Google
146
JOHN BARCLAY, M.D.
thesis, De Anima % sen Principio Vitali, the vital principle having long been with
him a favourite topic of speculation. Alter graduation, Dr Barclay proceeded to
London, and attended the anatomical lectures of Dr Marshall, of Thayies Inn. In
1737 be commenced to deliver private lectures on anatomy in a small class room in
the High School -yards, Edinburgh, but had to contend with formidable difficulties;
the popularity of the second Monro, and of' the lace John Bell, being still undimi-
nished amongst the students. Dr Barclay, therefore, had few students at first; but
he resolved to persevere. The introductory lectures (which, after his death, were
published by his friend, Sir George Ballingall, M.D.) were prepared with scrupulous
care. He studied to express himself in plain and perspicuous language, which he
justly esteemed to be the chief quality of style in lecturing. His illustrations were
clear and copious, and not un frequently an apposite anecdote fixed more strongly in
the memories of his pupils the particular part he was demonstrating ; and, at a time
when it was l»v no means fashionable, he never omitted to point out the wisdom
of God, as displayed in that most wonderful of all his works, the formation and
support of the human body.
Barclay's first literary performance was the article Physiology, in the third edition
of the Encyclopaedia Brkannica. In 1803 he published a new anatomical nomencla-
ture. This had been long the subject of bis meditation, and was a great desideratum
in anatomy. The vagueness or indefinite nature of the terms of anatomy has been
perceived and regretted by all anatomists. They have produced much ambiguity and
confusion in anatomical descriptions, and their influence has been strongly felt, par-
ticularly by those who have just entered upon the study. Barclay was the first who,
fully aware of the obstacles that were thus thrown in the way of students, set about *
inventing a new nomenclature. The vagueness of the terms principally referred
to those implying position, aspect, and direction. Thus, what is superior in one
position of the body, becomes anterior in another, posterior in a third, and even
inferior in a fourth. What is external in one position is internal in another,
<fcc. These terms become much more ambiguous in comparative anatomy. His
object was to contrive a nomenclature, in which the same terms should universally
apply to the same organ, in all positions of the body, and in all animals. It is the
opinion of very candid judges that he has succeeded in bis endeavour, and that, were
Ins nomenclature adopted, the greatest advantages would accrue to the study of the
science. The proposal is delivered with singular nicdesty, and discovers both a
most accurate knowledge of anatomy and great ingenuity.
In 1808, appeared his work on the muscular motions of the human body, and, in
IS 12, a description of the arteries of the human body— both of which contain a most
complete account of those parts of the system. These three works were dedicated
to the late Dr Thomas Thomson, Professor of Chemistry in the University of
Glasgow. The last work which Dr Barclay lived to publish, was an inquiry into
the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organisation. This, as we
have mentioned, formed the subject of his thesis.
He also delivered, during several summers, a course of lectures on comparative
anatomy, a branch of study for which he had always shown a marked partiality—*
not only as an object of scientific research, but as of great practical utility. At one
time be proposed to the town council, the patrons of the university of Edinburgh,
to be created professor of that department of the science ; how the proposal was
received is not known. The writer of the memoir of Dr Barclay, in the Naturalist's
Library, furnishes a characteristic illustration of the lively interest be felt in the
dissections of uncommon animals which came in his way in the Scottish metropolis.
" At one of these we happened to be present. It was the dissection of a Beluga, or
White Whale. Never shall we forget the enthusiasm of the Doctor wading to his
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
ROBERT BARCLAY. 14)
knees amongst the viscera of the great tenant of the deep, alternately cutting away,
with his large and dexterous knife, and regaling his nostrils with copious infusions of
snuff, while he pointed out, in his usual felicitous manner, the various contrasts or agree-
ments of the forms of the viscera with those of other animals and of man." Barclay
was the means of establishing, under the auspices of the Highland Society, a veteri-
nary school in Edinburgh. He might be called an enthusiast in his profession :
there was no branch of anatomy, whether practical or theoretical, that he bad not
cultivated with the utmost care ; be had studied the works of the ancient and
modern, foreign and British anatomists with astonishing diligence. Whatever related
to natural science was certain of interesting him. The benevolence and generosity ot
bis temper were also unbounded. No teacher was ever more generally beloved by his
pupils than Dr Barclay, to which his uniform kindness and affability, and readiness
to promote their interest upon every occasion, greatly contributed. Many young men,
in straitened circumstances, were permitted to attend his instructions gratuitously;
and he has even been known to furnish them with the means of feeing other lecturers.
It is a curions circumstance, that Dr Barclay often declared that he had neither
the sense of taste nor of smell.
His last appearance in the lecture- room was in 1825, when he delivered the intro-
ductory lecture. He died 2 1st August, 1826, and was buried at Restalrig, near
Edinbnrgfe, the fiunPy burying-ground of his father-in-law. Sir James Campbell. His
funeral was attended by the Royal College of Surgeons as a body.
A bust of Dr Barclay, subscribed for by his pupils, and executed by Joseph, was
presented to the College of Surgeons, to which he bequeathed his museum — a valu-
able collection of specimens, particularly in comparative anatomy, and which is to
retain his name. His design in this legacy was to prevent it from being broken up
and scattered after his death.
BARCLAY, Robert, the celebrated Apologist for the Quakers, was born on the
23rd of December, 1648, at Gordonstoun, in Moray. His father, Colonel David
Barclay, of Ury, was the son of David Barclay, of Mathers, the representative of an
old 8 cot o- Norman family, which traced itself, through fifteen intervening generations,
to Theobald de Berkeley, who acquired a settlement in Scotland at the beginning of
the twelfth century. The mother of the Apologist was Catherine Gordon, daughter
of Sir Robert Gordon, of Gordonstoun, the premier baronet of Nova Scotia, and
well-known historian of the house of Sutherland.
The ancient family of de Berkeley became possessed of the estate of Mathers, by
marriage, in the year 1351. Alexander de Berkeley, who flourished in the fifteenth
century, is said to have been the first laird of Mathers who changed the name to
Barclay; a change which says little for his taste, however recommended by that
principle of literal and syllabic economy which seems to have flourished at all periods
in a greater or less degree, though chiefly at the present era. This laird, however*
is reputed to have been a scholar, and to him are attributed the excellent verses,
known by the title of the Laird of Mathers* Testament, which, for their piety
and good sense, cannot be too widely disseminated, or too warmly recommended.
These verses are subjoined in the modified form under which they have come down
traditionally to our time :
Glf thou desire thy house laog stand
And thy successors bruik thy land,
Abuve all things, lief God in fear,
Intromit nocht with wrangous gear ;
Nor conquest* nothing wrangonsly ;
"With thy neighbour keep charity.
1 Acquire,
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
150
BOBERT BABCLAY.
See that that thou pass not thy estate;
Obey duly thy magistrate;
Oppress not but support the puire;
To help the commonweill take cuire.
Use no deceit ; mell* not with treason ;
And to all men do richt and reason.
Both unto word and deid be true ;
All kinds of wickedness eschew.
Slay no man ; nor thereto consent;
Be nocht cruel, but patient.
Ally ay in some gude place,
With noble, honest, godly, race.
Hate huredom, and all vices flee ;
Be humble ; haunt gude companye.
Help thy friend, and do nae wrang,
And God shall make thy house stand lang.
David, the grandfather of the Apologist, from neglect of some part of his ances-
tor's advice, was reduced to such difficulties as to be obliged to sell the estate of
Mathers, after it had been between two and three hundred years in the family,
as also the more ancient inheritance, which had been the property of the family
from its first settlement in Scotland in the days of King David L His son, Da-
vid, the father of the Apologist, was consequently obliged to seek his fortune as
a volunteer in the Scottish brigades in the service of Gustavus Adolphus, king of
Sweden. This gentleman, like many others of his countrymen and fellow-sol-
diers, returned home on the breaking out of the religious troubles in Scotland, ,
and received the command of a troop of horse. Having joined the army raised
by the Duke of Hamilton in 1648 for the relief of Charles I., he was subsequent-
ly deprived of his command, at the instance of Oliver Cromwell ; and he never
afterwards appeared in any military transactions. During the protectorate, he
was several times sent as a representative from Scotland to Cromwell's parlia-
ments, and, in this capacity, is said to have uniformly exerted himself to repress
the ambitious designs of the Protector. After the restoration, David Barclay was
committed prisoner to Edinburgh Castle, upon some groundless charge of hostili-
ty to the government He was soon after liberated, through the interest of the
Earl of Middleton, with whom he had served in the civil war. But during
this imprisonment, a change of the highest importance both to himself and his
son, had come over his mind. In the same prison was confined the celebrated
Laird of Swinton, who, after figuring under the protectorate as a lord of session,
and a zealous instrument for the support of Cromwell's interest in Scotland, had,
during a short residence in England before the Restoration, adopted the princi-
ples of Quakerism, then recently promulgated for the first time by George Fox,
and was now more- anxious to gain proselytes to that body than to defend his life
against the prosecution meditated against him. When this extraordinary person was
placed on trial before parliament, he might have easily eluded justice by plead-
ing that the parliamentary attainder upon which he was now charged, had be-
come null by the rescissory act But he scorned to take advantage of any plea
suggested by worldly lawyers. He answered, in the spirit of his sect, that when
he committed the crimes laid to his charge, he was in the gall of bitterness and
bond of iniquity, but that God having since called him to the light, he saw and
acknowledged his past errors, and did not refuse to pay the forfeit of them, even
though in their judgment this should extend to his life. His speech was, though
modest, so majestic, and, though expressive of the most perfect patience, so pa-
• Meddle,
Digitized by
Google
ROBJSKT BARCLAY.
151
thetic, that it appeared to melt the hearts of his judges, and, to the surprise of
all who remembered his past deeds, he was recommended to the royal mercy,
while many others, far less obnoxious, were treated with unrelenting severity.
Such was the man who inoculated David Barclay with those principles, of which
his son was destined to be the most distinguished advocate.
Robert Barclay, the subject of the present article, received the rudiments of
learning in his native country, and was afterwards sent to the Scots college at
Paris, of which his uncle Robert (son to the last Barclay of Mathers,) was Rec-
tor. Here he made such rapid advances in his studies, as to gain the notice and
praise of the masters of the college ; and he also became so great a favourite with
his uncle, as to receive the offer of being made his heir, if he would remain in
France. But his father, fearing that he might be induced to embrace the catho-
lic faith, went, in compliance with his mother's dying request, to Paris to
bring him home, when he was not much more than sixteen years of age. The
uncle still endeavoured to prevent his return, and proposed to purchase for him,
and present to him immediately, an estate greater than his paternal one. Ro-
bert replied, " He is my father, and must be obeyed." Thus, even at a very early
age, he showed how far he could prefer a sacred principle to any view of private
interest, however dazzling. His uncle is said to have felt much chagrin at his
refusal, and to have consequently left his property to the college, and to other
religious houses in France.
The return of Robert Barclay to his native country took place in 1664,
about two years before his father made open profession of the principles
of the Society of Friends. He was now, even at the early age of sixteen,
perfectly skilled in the French and Latin languages, the latter of which he
could write and speak with wonderful fluency and correctness ; he had also
a competent knowledge of the sciences. With regard to the state of his
feelings on the subject of religion at this early period of life, he says, in his
Treatise on Universal Love : " My first education, from my infancy fell amongst
the strictest sort of Calvinists ; those of our country being generally acknow-
ledged to be the severest of that sect ; in the heat of zeal surpassing not only
Geneva, from whence they derive their pedigree, but all other the reformed
churches abroad, so called. I had scarce got out of my childhood, when I was,
by the permission of Divine Providence, cast among the company of papists ; an 4
my tender years and immature capacity not being able to withstand and resist
the insinuations that were used to proselyte me to that way, 1 became quickly
defiled with the pollutions thereof, and continued therein for a time, until it
pleased God, through his rich love and mercy, to deliver me out of those snares,
and to give me a clear understanding of the evil of that way. In both these
sects I had abundant occasion to receive impressions contrary to this principle of
love : seeing the straitness of several of their doctrines, as well as their practice
of persecution, do abundantly declare how opposite they are to universal love.
The time that intervened betwixt my forsaking the church of Rome, and joining
those with whom I now stand engaged, I kept myself free from joining with any
sort of people, though I took liberty to hear several ; and my converse was most
with those that inveigh muca against judging, and such kind of severity ; which
latitude may perhaps be esteemed the other extreme, opposite to the preciseness
of these other sects ; whereby I also received an opportunity to know what usu-
ally is pretended on that side likewise. As for those I am now joined to, I
justly esteem them to be the true followers and servants of Jesus Christ."
In his Apology, he communicates the following account of his conversion to
the principles previously embraced by his father. " It was not," he says, " by
.strength of argument, or by a particular disquisition of each doctrine, and con*
Digitized by
Google
152 ROBERT BARCLAY.
vincement of my understanding thereby, that I came to receive and bear witness
of the truth, but by being secretly reached by this Life. For when I came into
the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power amongst them which
touched my heart ; and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me,
and the good raised up ; and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hun-
gering more and more after the increase of this power and life, whereby I might
find myself perfectly redeemed. " According to his friend William Penn, it was
in the year 1667, when only nineteen years of age, that he fully became " con-
vinced, and publicly owned the testimony of the true light* enlightening ,
every man." " This writer," says he, " came early forth a zealous and fervent
witness for it [the true light], enduring the cross and despising the shame that
attended his discipleship, and received the gift of the ministry as his greatest
honour, in which he laboured to bring others to (rod, and his labour was not in vain
in the Lord." The testimony of another of his brethren, Andrew Jaflray, is to die
same effect : " Having occasion, through his worthy father, to be in the meetings of
God's chosen people, who worship him in hi; own name, spirit, and power, and not
in the words of man's wisdom and preparation, he was, by the virtue and effica-
cious life of this blessed power, shortly after reached, and that in a time of si-
lence, a mystery to the world, and came so fast to grow therein, through his great
love and watchfulness to the inward appearance thereof, that, not long after, he
was called out to the public ministry, and declaring abroad that his eyes had
seen and his hands had handled of the pure word of life. Yea the Lord, who
loved him, counted him worthy so early to call him to some weighty and hard
services for his truth in our nation, that, a little after his coming out of the age
of minority, as it is called, he was made willing, in the day of God's power, to
give up his body as a sign and wonder to this generation, and to deny himself
iind all in him as a man so far as to become a fool, for his sake whom he loved,
in going in sackcloth and ashes through the chief streets of the city of Aberdeen,
besides some services at several steeple-houses and some sufferings in prison for
the truth's sake."
The true grounds of Barclay's predilection for the meek principles of the
Friends, is perhaps to be found in his physical temperament. On arriving in
Scotland, in 1664, with a heart open to every generous impulse, his mild nature
appears, from one of the above extracts of his own writings, to have been shock-
ed by the mutual hostility which existed between the adherents of the established
and the disestablished churches. While these bodies judged of each other in
the severest spirit they joined in one point alone — a sense of the propriety of
persecuting the new and strange sect called Quakers, from whom both might ra-
ther have learned a lesson of forbearance and toleration. Barclay, who, from his
French education, was totally free of all prejudices on either side, seems to have
deliberately preferred that sect which alone, of all others in his native country,
professed to regard every denomination of fellow-Christians with an equal feel-
ing of kindness.
In February, 1669-70, Robert Barclay married Christian Mollison, daughter
of Gilbert Mollison, merchant in Aberdeen ; and on his marriage settled at
Ury with his father. The issue of this marriage was three sons and four daugh-
ters, all of whom survived him, and were living fifty years after his death. In
the life of John Gratton, there is an agreeable and instructive account of this
excellent mother's solicitude to imbue the tender minds of her children with
pious and good principles. The passage is as follows : " I observed (1694, her
husband being then dead,) that when her children were up in the morning and
diessed, she sat down with them, before breakfast, and in a religious manner
waited upon the Lord : which pious care, and motherly instruction of her chU-
Digitized by
Google
ROBERT BARCLAY.
153
=l
dren when young, doubtless had its desired effect upon them, for as they grew to
years, they also grew in the knowledge of the blessed truth ; and since that time,
some of them hare become public preachers thereof/' Believing it to be her duty
to appear a preacher of righteousness, she was very solicitous that her example might,
in all respects, correspond with her station.
Robert Barclay, after his marriage, lived about sixteen years with his father ; in
which time he wrote most of those works by which his fame has been established.
All his time, however, was not passed in endeavouring to serve the cause of religion
with his pen. He both acted and suffered for it. His whole existence, indeed,
seems to have been henceforth devoted to the interests of that profession of religion
which he bad adopted. In prosecution of his purpose, he made a number of excur-
sions into England, Holland, and particular parts of Germany ; teaching, as he went
along, the universal and saving light of Christ, sometimes vocally, but 89 often, we
may suppose, by what he seems to have considered the far more powerful manner,
expressive silence. In these peregrinations, the details of which, had they been pre-
served, would have been deeply interesting, he was on some occasions accompanied
by the famous William Penn, and probably also by others of the brethren.
The first of his publications in the order of time was, " Truth cleared of Calumnies,
occasioned by a hook entitled, A Dialogue between a Quaker and a Stable Christian,
written by the Rev. William Mitchell, a minister or preacher in the neighbourhood
of Aberdeen." " The Quakers," says a defender of the Scottish church, " were, at
this time, only newly risen up ; they were, like every new sect, obtrusively forward ;
some of their tenets were of a startling, and some of them of' an incomprehensible
kind, and to the rigid presbyterians especially, they were exceedingly offensive.
Hearing these novel opinions, not as simply stated and held by the Quakers, who
were, generally speaking, no great logicians, but in their remote consequences, they
regarded them with horror, and in the heat of their zeal, it must be confessed, often
lost sight both of charity and truth. They thus gave their generally passive oppo-
nents great advantages over them. Barclay, who was a roan of great talents, was
certainly in this instance successful in refuting many false charges, and rectifying
many forced constructions that had been put upon parts of their practice, and, upon
the whole, setting the character of his silent brethren in a more favourable light than
formerly, though he was far from having demonstrated, as these brethren fondly
imagined, *the soundness and scripture verity of their principles.' " This publica-
tion was dated at Ury, the 19th of the second Month, 1670, and in the eleventh
month of the same year, he added to it, by way of appendix, " Some things of
weighty concernment proposed in meekness and love, by way of queries, to the
serious consideration of the inhabitants of Aberdeen, which also may be of use to
such as are' of the same mind with them elsewhere in this nation." These queries,
twenty in number, were more particularly directed to Messrs David Lyal, George
Meldrum, and John Mensies, the ministers of Aberdeen who had, not only from the
pulpit, forbidden their people to read the aforesaid treatise, but had applied to the
magistrates of Aberdeen to suppress it. Mitchell wrote a reply to " Truth cleared
of calumnies,'' and, on the 24th day of the tenth Month, 1671, Barclay finished a
rejoinder at Ury, under the title of " William Mitchell unmasked, or the staggering
instability of the pretended stable Christian discovered ; his omissions observed, and
weakness un vailed," Ac. This goes over the same ground with the former treatise,
and is seasoned with several severe strokes of sarcasm against these Aberdonians,
who, " notwithstanding they bad sworn to avoid a detestable neutrality, could now
preaeh under the bishop, dispense with the doxology, forbear lecturing and other
parts of the Directorial discipline, at the bishop's order, and yet keep a reserve for
r. u
Digitized by
Google
154
ROBERT BARCLAY.
presbytery in ease it came again in fashion.*' He also turns some of William Mitchell's
arguments against himself with great ingenuity, though still he comes far short of
establishing his own theory. It is worthy of remark, that, in this treatise, he has
frequent recourse to Richard Baxter's aphorisms on justification, whose new law
scheme of the gospel seems to ha? e been very much to the taste of the Quaker. It
appears to have been on the appearance of this publication that, " for a sign and
wonder to the generation," he walked through the chief streets of the city of Aber-
deen, clothed in sackcloth and ashes ; on which occasion he published (in 1673) a
" Seasonable warning and serious exhortation to, and expostulation with, the
inhabitants of Aberdeen, concerning this present dispensation and day of God's living
visitation towards them."
His next performance was, " A Catechism and Confession of Faith," the answers
to the questions being all in the express words of Scripture ; and the preface to it
is dated, " From Ury, the place of my being, in my native country of Scotland, the
Uth of the sixth month, 1673." This was followed by "The Anarchy of the
Ranters," Ac,
We now come to his great work, " An Apology for the true Christian Divinity,
a« the same is held forth and preached by the people called in scorn, Quakers : Being
a full explanation and vindication of their principles and doctrines, by many argu-
ments deduced from Scripture and right reason, and the testimonies of famous authors,
both ancient and modern ; with a full answer to the strongest objections usually
made against them. Presented to the King. Written and published in Latin for
the information of strangers, by Robert Barclay, and now put into our own language
for the benefit of his countrymen." The epistle to the King, prefixed to this
elaborate work, is dated, '* From Ury, the place of my pilgrimage, in my native
country of Scotland, the 25th of the month called November, 1675." This epistle
is not a little curious, among other things, for the ardent anticipations which the
writer indulges with regard to the increase and future prevalence of the doctrines of
the Quakers, which he calls, " the gospel now again revealed after a long and dark
night of apostacy, and commanded to be preached to all nations." After some para-
graphs, sufficiently complimentary to the peaceable habits of his silence loving brethren,
he tells his majesty that "generations to come will not more admire that singular
step of Divine Providence, in restoring thee to thy throne without bloodshed, than
they shall admire the increase and progress of this truth without all outward help,
and against so great opposition, which shall be none of the least things rendering thy
memory remarkable." In looking back upon the atrocities that marked the reign of
Charles II., the growth of Quakerism is scarcely ever thought of, and the sufferings
of its professors are nearly invisible, by reason of the far greater sufferings of another
branch of the Christian church. Though led by his enthusiasm in his own cause to
overrate it, Barclay certainly had no intention of flattering the King. "God," he
goes on to tell him, "hath done great things for thee; he hath sufficiently shown thee
that it is by him princes rule, and that he can pull down and set up at his pleasure.
Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity ; thou k no west what it is to be banished
thy native country, to be overruled as well as to rule and sit upon the throne, and
being oppressed thou hast reason to know how hateful the oppressor is, both to God
and man. If after all these warnings and advertisements, thou dost not turn unto
the Lord with all thy heart, but forget him who remembered thee in thy distress,
and give up thyself to lust and vanity, surely great will be thy condemnation."
The Apology is a most elaborate work, indicating no small portion of both talent
and learning. It contains, indeed, the sum of the author's thoughts in those treatises
we have already mentioned, as well as in those which he afterwards published,
digested into fifteen propositions, in which are included all the peculiar notions of
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
ROBERT BARCLAY. 155
the sect: — Immediate Revelation; the Universal Spiritual light; Silent worship;
Perfection ; the Rejection of the Sabbath and the Sacraments, <fec, Ac. This is
done with great apparent simplicity, and many plausible reasons, a number of excel-
lent thoughts being struck out by the way ; yet they are far from being satisfactory,
and never will be so to any who are not already strongly possessed with an idea of
the internal light in man, to which the author holds even the Scriptures themselves
to be subordinate. There are, indeed, in the book, many sophisms, many flat contra-
dictions, and many assertions that are incapable of any proof. The appeals which
he makes to his own experience for the proof of his doctrines are often not a little
curious, and strongly illustrative of his character, as well as of the principles he had
espoused.
The same year in which he published the Apology, he published an account of a
dispute with the students of Aberdeen, which touches little besides the folly of such
attempts to establish truth or confute error. The following year, in conjunction
with George Keith, he put forth a kind of second part to the foregoing article, which
they entitled, " Quakerism Confirmed, being an answer to a pamphlet by the Aber-
deen students, entitled, Quakerism Canvassed." This treats only of matters to be
found in a better form in the Apology. In the first month of the year 1677, from
Aberdeen prison, he wrote his treatise of " Universal Love," and in the end of the
same year, he wrote, from his house at Ury, " An Epistle of Love and Friendly
Advice to the Ambassadors of the several princes of Europe, met at Nimeguen, to
consult the peace of Christendom so far as they are concerned ; wherein the true
cause of the present war is discovered, and the right remedy and means for a firm
and settled peace is proposed." This last was written in Latin, but published also
in English for the benefit of his countrymen. Both of the above tracts, deserve
serious perusal. In 1679, he published a vindication of his Apology, and in 1086,
his last work, " The possibility and necessity of the inward and immediate revelation
of the Spirit of God towards the foundation and ground of true faith ; in a letter, ta
a person of quality In Holland," published both in Latin and English. In neittier
of these, in our opinion, has he added anything to his Apology, which,, as we ,^ave
already said, contains the sum of all that he has written or published. >
In the latter part of his life, Barclay obtained, by the influence of his tatents»and
the sincerity and simplicity of his character and professions, an exemption from that
persecution which marked his early years. He had also contributed in no small
I degree, by the eloquence of his writings in defence of the Friends, to procure for
I them a considerable share of public respect. He is even found, strangely enough, to
have latterly possessed some influence at the dissolute court of Charles IL In 1679,
he obtained a charter from this monarch, under the great seal, erecting his lands of
Ury,» into a free barony, with civil and criminal jurisdiction to him and his heirs.
1 This charter was afterwards ratified by an act of Parliament, the preamble of which
states it to be " for the many services done by Colonel David Barclay, and his son,
the said Robert Barclay, to the King and his most royal progenitors in times past."
, Another and more distinguished mark of court favour was conferred upon him in
' 1682, when he received the nominal appointment of governor of East Jersey, in
I North America, from the proprietors of that province, of whom his friend the Earl
of Perth was one. He was also himself made a proprietor, and had allotted to
him five thousand acres of land above his proprietary share, as inducements for
his acceptance of the dignity, which, at the same time, he was permitted to depute.
. The royal commission confirming this grant states, that such are his known fidelity
and capacity, that he has the government during life, but that no other governor
x His father had died in 1676, leaving him in possession of this estate.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
150 ROBERT BARCLAY.
alter him shall have H for more than three yearn One of his brother* settled
in the province, but he never visited it himself. In this year we find him assist-
ing the Laird of Swinton with his interest and purse at Edinburgh ; thus an-
swering practically and freely the apostolic expostulation (1 Cor. ix. 11.), by
permitting Swinton to reap carnal things, who had sown spiritual things to his
family.
The remainder of his life is not marked with many instances of public ac-
tion. Much of it appears to have been passed in tranquillity, and in the
bosom of his family ; yet he occasionally undertook journeys to promote his pri-
vate concerns, to serve his relations and neighbours, or to maintain the cause of
his brethren in religious profession. He was in London in 1685, and had fre-
quent access to King James II., who had all along evinced a warm friendship
towards him. Barclay, on the other hand, thinking James sincere in his faith,
and perhaps influenced a little by the flattery of a prince's favour, appears to
have conceived a real regard for this misguided and imprudent monarch. Li-
berty of conscience having been conceded to the Friends on the accession of
James II., Barclay exerted his influence to procure some parliamentary arrange-
ment, by which they might be exempted from the harsh and ruinous prosecu-
tions to which they were exposed, in consequence of their peculiar notions as to
the exercise of the law. He was again in London, on this business, in 1686,
on which occasio% he visited the seven bishops, then confined in the Tower, for
having refused to distribute in their respective dioceses the king's declaration
for liberty of conscience, and for having represented to the king the grounds of
their objection to the measure. The popular opinion was in favour of the
bishops ; yet the former severities of some of the episcopal order against dissen-
ters, particularly against the Friends, occasioned some reflections on them. This
having come to the knowledge of the imprisoned bishops, they declared that,
44 the Quakers had belied them, by reporting that they had been the death of
some." Robert Barclay, being informed of this declaration, went to the Tower,
and gave their lordships a well-substantiated account of some persons having
been detained in prison till death, by order of bishops, though they had been
apprized of the danger by physicians who were not Quakers. He, however,
observed to the bishops, that it was by no means the intention of the Friends to
publish such events, and thereby give the king, and their other adversaries, any
advantage against them. Barclay was in London, for the last time, in the me-
morable year 1688. He visited James II., and being with him near a window,
the king looked out, and observed that, " the wind was then fair for the prince
of Orange to come over." Robert Barclay replied, " it was hard that no expe-
dient could be found to satisfy the people." The king declared, " he would do
any thing becoming a gentleman, except parting with liberty of conscience,
which he never would whilst he lived." At that time Barclay took a final leave
of the unfortunate king, for whose disasters he was much concerned, and with
whom he had been several times engaged in serious discourse at that time.
Robert Barclay " laid down the body," says Andrew Jatiray, " in the holy and
honourable truth, wherein he had served it about three and twenty years, upon
the 3rd day of the eighth month, 1690, near the forty and second year of his
age, at his own house of Urie, in Scotland, and it was laid in his own burial
ground there, upon the 6th day of the same month, before many friends and
other people." His character has been thus drawn by another of the amicable
fraternity to which he belonged : — *
11 He was distinguished by strong mental powers, particularly by great pene-
tration, and a sound and accurate judgment His talents were much improved
* A short account of ths Life and Writings of Robert Barclay, London, 1802.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM BARCLAY.
157
by a regular and classical education* It does not, however, appear that his su-
perior qualifications produced that elation of mind, which is too often their
attendant : he was meek, humble, and ready to allow to others the merit they
possessed. All his passions were under the most excellent government. Two
of his intimate friends, in their character of him, declare that they nerer knew
him to be angry. He had the happiness ef early perceiving the infinite supe-
riority of religion to every other attainment; and the Divine grace enabled him
to dedicate hit life, and all that he possessed, to promote the cause of piety and
virtue. For the welfare of his friends he was sincerely and warmly concerned:
and he travelled and wrote much, as well as suffered cheerfully, in support of
die society and the principles to which he had conscientiously attached himsel£
But this was not a blind and bigoted attachment His seal was tempered with
charity ; and he loved and respected goodness wherever he found it His un-
corrupted integrity and liberality of sentiment, his great abilities and suavity of
disposition, gave him much interest with persons of rank and influence, and he
employed it in a manner that marked the benevolence of his heart He loved
peace, and was often instrumental in settling disputes, and in producing recon-
ciliations between contending parties.
44 In support and pursuit of what he believed to be right, he possessed great
firmness of mind ; which was early evinced in the pious and dutiful sentiment
he expressed to his uncle, who tempted him with great oflers to remain in
Prance, against the desire of his father : ' He is my father,' said he, ' and lie
must be obeyed.' All die virtues harmonize, and are connected with one another :
this firm and resolute spirit in the prosecution of duty, was united with great
sympathy and compassion towards persons in affliction and distress. They were
consoled by his tenderness, assisted by his advice, and occasionally relieved by
his bounty. His spiritual discernment and religious experience, directed by
that Divine influence which he valued above all things, eminently qualified him
to instruct the ignorant, to reprove the irreligious, to strengthen the feeble-
minded, and to animate the advanced Christian to still greater degrees of virtue
and holiness.
M In private life he was equally amiable. His conversation was cheerful,
guarded, and instructive. He was a dutiful son, an affectionate and faithfut
husband, a tender and careful father, a kind and considerate master. Without
exaggeration, it may be said, that piety and virtue were recommended by his
example ; and that, though the period of his life was short, he had, by the aid
of Divine grace, most wisely and happily improved it He lived long enough
to manifest, in an eminent degree, the temper and conduct of a Christian, and
the virtues and qualifications of a true minister of the gospel"
BARCLAY, William, an eminent civilian, and father of the still more cele-
brated author of the Argent*, was descended from one of the best families in
Scotland under the rank of nobility, and was born in Aberdeenshire, in 1541.
He spent his early yeprs in the court of Queen Mary, with whom he was in high
favour. After her captivity in England, disgusted with the turbulent state of his
native country, which promised no advantage to a man of learning, he removed
to France (1573), and began to study the law at Bourges. Having in time
qualified himself to teach the civil law, he was appointed by the Duke of Lorrain,
through the recommendation of his relation Edmund Hay, the Jesuit, to be a pro-
fessor of that science in the university of Ponfunousson, being at the same time
counsellor of state and master of requests to his princely patron. In 1581, he
eiarried Anne de Maleville, a young lady of Lorrain, by whom he had his son
John, the subject of the following article. This youth showed tokens of genius at
an early period, and was sought from his father by the Jesuits, that he raijfhi enter
Digitized by
Google
158 JOHN BARCLAY.
their society. The father, thinking proper to refuse the request, became an ob-
ject of such wrath to that learned and unscrupulous fraternity, that he was com*
pelled to abandon all his preferments, and seek refuge in England. TTiis was
in 1603, just at the time when his native sovereign had acceded to the throne of
England. James I. offered him a pension, and a place in his councils, on con-
dition that he would embrace the protestant faith ; but though indignant at the
intrigues of the Jesuits, he would not desert their religion. In 1604, he return-
ed to France, and became professor of aril law at Angers, where be taught for a
considerable time with high reputation. It is said that he entertained a very
high sense of the dignity of his situation. He used to " go to school every day,
attended by a servant who went before him, himself having a rich robe lined with
ermine, the train of which was supported by two servants, and his son upon his
right hand ; and there hung about his neck a great chain of gold, with a medal
of gold, with his own picture." Such was, in those days, the pomp and circum-
stance of the profession of civil law. He .did not long enjoy this situation, dy-
ing towards the close of 1605. He is allowed to have been very learned, not
only in the civil and canon law, but in the classical languages, and in ecclesias-
tical history. But his prejudices were of so violent a nature as to obscure both
his genius and erudition. He zealously maintained the absolute power of mon-
archs, and had an illiberal antipathy to the protestant religion. His works are,
1, a controversial treatise on the royal power, against Buchanan and other king-
killers, Paris, 1600 ; 2, a treatise on the power of the Pope, showing that he
has no right of rule over secular princes, 1609 ; 3, a commentary on the title
of the pandects de rebis creditis, &c ; 4, a commentary on Tacitus'* Life of
Agricola. All these works, as well as their titles, are in Latin.
Barclay, John, son of William Barclay, was born at Pontamousson in
France, January 28, 1582, and was educated under the care of Jesuits.
When only nineteen years old, he published notes on the Thebais of Statius. He
was, as above stated, the innocent cause of a quarrel between his father and the
Jesuits, in consequence of which the family removed to England, in 1603. At
the beginning of 1604, young Barclay presented a poetical panegyric to the
king, under the title of Kalenda Jamtaria. To this monarch he soon after
dedicated the first part of his celebrated Latin satire entitled, Euphormion. Johu
Barclay, like many young men of genius, was anxious for distinction, quocunqut
modo, and, having an abundant conceit of his own abilities, and looking upon
all other men as only fit to furnish him with matter of ridicule, he launched at the
very first into the dangerous field of general satire. He confesses in the apology
which he afterwards published for his Euphormion, that, " as soon as he left
school, a juvenile desire of fame incited him to attack the whole world, rather
with a view of promoting his own reputation, than of dishonouring individuals.."
We must confess that this grievous early fault of Barclay was only the transgres-
sion of a very spirited character. He says, in his dedication of Euphormion to
King James, written when he was two-and-twenty, that he was ready, in the ser-
vice of his Majesty, to convert his pen into a sword, or his sword into a pen.
His prospects at this court were unfortunately blighted, like those of his fa-
ther, by the religious contests of the time; and iii 1604 the family returned
to France. John, however, appears to have spent the next year chiefly in Eng-
land, probably upon some renewal of his prospects at the court of King James.
In 1606, after the death of his father, he returned to France, and at Paris mar-
ried Louisa Debonnaire, with whom he soon after settled at London. Here he pub-
lished tM* second part of his Euphormion, dedicating it to the Earl of Salisbury,
a minister in whom he could find no fault but his excess of virtue. Lord Hailes
remarks, as a surprising circumstance, that the writer who could discover no faults
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN BARCLAY.
159
in Salisbury, aimed the shafts of ridicule at Sully ; but nothing can be less sup-
prising in such a person as Barclay. A man who satirized only for the sake
of personal eclat, would as easily flatter in gratitude for the least notice. It should
also be recollected, that many minds do not, till the approach of middle life, ac-
quire the power of judging accurately regarding virtue and rice, or merit and
demerit : all principles, in such minds, are jumbled like the elements of the
earth in chaos, and are only at length reduced to rfrder by the overmastering
influence of the understanding. In the disposition which seems to have clinrao-
terised Barclay, for flattering those who patronised him, he endeavoured to please
King James, in the second part of the Euphormion, by satirizing tobacco and
the puritans. In this year he also published an account of the gun-powder plot,
a woik remarked to be singularly impartial, considering the religion of the writer.
During the course of three years' residence in England, Barclay received no
token of the royal liberality. Sunk in indigence, with an increasing family
calling for support, he only wished to be indemnified for his English journeys,
and to have his charges defrayed into France. At length he was relieved from
his distresses by his patron Salisbury. Of these circumstances, so familiar and
so discouraging to men of letters, we are informed by some allegorical and ob-
scure verses written by Barclay at that sad season. Having removed to France
in 1609, he next year published his Apology for the Euphormion. This denotes
that he came to see the folly of a general contempt for mankind at the age of
twenty-eight. How he supported himself at this time, does not appear; but he
is found, in 1614, publishing his Icon Animarum, which is declared by a com-
petent critic to be the best, though not the most celebrated of his works. It is
a delineation of the genius and manners of the European nations, with remarks,
moral and philosophical, on the various tempers of men. It is pleasant to ob-
serve that in this work he does justice to the Scottish people. In 1615, Barclay
is said to have been invited by Pope Paul V. to Rome. He had previously
lashed the holy court in no measured terms ; but so marked a homage from
this quarter to his distinction in letters, as usual, softened his feelings, and he
now accordingly shifted his family thither, and lived the rest of his life under the
protection of the pontiff In 1617, he published at Rome his " Paraenesis ad
Sectarios, Libri Duo ;" a work in which he seems to have aimed at atoning for
his former sarcasms at the Pope, by attacking those whom his holiness called
heretics. Barclay seems to have been honoured with many marks of kindness,
not only from the Pope, but also from Cardinal Barberini ; yet it does not appear
that he obtained much emolument Incumbered with a wife and family, and
having a spirit above his fortune, he was left at full leisure to pursue his studies.
It was at that time that he composed bis Latin romance called Argents. He
employed his vacant hours in cultivating a flower garden ; and Rossi relates, in his
turgid Italian style, that Barclay cared not for those bulbous roots which produce
flowers of a sweet scent, but cultivated such as produced flowers void of smell,
but having variety of colours. Hence we may conclude that he was among the
first of those who were infected with that strange disease, a passion for tulips,
which soon after overspread Europe, and is commemorated under the name of the
Ttdipo-manicu Barclay might truly have said with Virgil, " Tardus amorflo-
him /" He had two mastiffs placed as sentinels to protect his garden ; and ra-
ther than abandon his favourite flowers, chose to continue his residence in an ill-
aired and unwholesome situation.
This extraordinary genius, who seems to have combined the perfervidum in-
genitan of his father's country, with the mercurial vivacity of his mother's, died
at Rome on the 12th of August, 1 621, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. He
left, a wife, who had tormented him much with jealousy, (through the ardour of
Digitized by
Google
160
JAMES BASSANTIN (oe BASSANTOUN).
ner affection, as he explained it), besides three children, of whom two were boys.
He also left, in the hands of the printer, his celebrated Argents, and also an un-
published history of the conquest of Jerusalem, and some fragments of a general
history of Europe. He was buried in the church of St Onuphrius, and his widow
erected a monument to him, with his bust in marble, at die church of St Law-
rence, on the road to Tivoli. A strange circumstance caused the destruction of
this trophy. Cardinal Barberini chanced to erect a monument, exactly similar,
it the same place, to his preceptor, Bernardus Guliemu a monie Sancti Sabini.
When the widow of Barclay heard of this, she said, " My husband was a man of
birtli, and famous in the literary world ; I will not suffer him to remain on a
level with a base and obscure pedagogue. " She therefore caused the bust to be
removed, and the inscription to be obliterated. The account given of the Ar-
irenis, by Lord Hailes, who wrote a life of John Barclay as a specimen of a Bio-
graphia Scotica, 1 is as follows : " Argeni* is generally supposed to be a history
under feigned names, and not a romance. Barclay himself contributed to estab*
lish this opinion, by introducing some real characters into die work. But that
was merely to compliment certain dignitaries of the church, whose good offices
he courted, or whose power he dreaded. The key prefixed to Argeni* has per-
petuated the error. There are, no doubt, many incidents in it that allude to the
state of France during the civil wars in the seventeenth century ; but it requires
a strong imagination indeed to discover Queen Elizabeth in Hyanisbe, or Henry
III. of France in Meleander." On the whole, Argenis appears to be a poetical fable,
replete with moral and political reflections. Of this work three English translations
have appeared, the last in 1772 ; but it now only enjoys the reflective reputation
of a work that was once in high repute. We may quote, however, the opinion
which Cowper was pleased to express regarding this singular production. " It
is," says the poet of Olney, " the most amusing romance that ever was written.
It is the only one, indeed, of an old date, that I had ever the patience to go
through with. It is interesting in a high degree, richer in incident than can be
imagined, full of surprises, which the reader never forestalls, and yet free from
entanglement and confusion. The style too, appears to roe to be such as would
not dishonour Tacitus himself."
BASSANTIN, or BASSANTOUN, James, astrbnomer and mathematician, was
the son of the Laird of Bassantin, in Berwickshire, and probably born in the
early part of the sixteenth century. Being sent to study at the University of
Glasgow, he applied himself almost exclusively to mathematics, to the neglect of
languages and philosophy, which were then the most common study. In order
to prosecute mathematics more effectually than it was possible to do in his own
country, he went abroad, and travelled through the Netherlands, Switzerland,
Italy, and Germany ; fixing himself at last in France, where for a considerable
time he taught his favourite science with high reputation in the University of
Paris. In that age, the study of astronomy was inseparable from astrology, and
Bassantin became a celebrated proficient in this pretended science, which was
then highly cultivated in France, insomuch that it entered more or less into
almost all public affairs, and nearly every court in Europe had its astrologer.
Bassantin, besides his attainments in astrology, understood the laws of the
heavens to an extent which excited the wonder of the age— especially, when it
was considered that he had scarcely any knowledge of the Greek or Latin lan-
guages, in which all that was formerly known of this science had been embodied.
But, as may be easily conceived, astronomy was as yet a most imperfect science ;
the Copernican system, which forms the groundwork of modern astronomy,
was not yet discovered or acknowledged ; and all that was really known had
1 Printed in 4to, in 1782, and the grQund-wurk of the present sketch.
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BASSOL. 161
in time become bo inextricably associated with the dreams of astrology, as to be
entitled to little respect Bassantin returned to his native country in 1562,
and in passing through England, met with Sir Robert Melville of Mordecairny,
who was then engaged in a diplomatic mission from Mary to Elizabeth, for the
purpose of bringing about a meeting between the two queens. A curious account
• of this rencontre is preserved by Sir James Melville in his Memoirs, and, as it
is highly illustrative of the character and pretensions of Rassantin, we shall lay
it before the reader. " Ane Bassantin, a Scottis man, that had been travelit,
and was learnit in hich scyences, cam to him [Sir Robert Melville] and said,
' Gud gentilman, I hear sa gtid report of you that I love you hartly, and there*
fore canot forbear to shaw you, how all your upricht dealing and your honest
travell will be in vain, where ye believe to obtein a weall for our Quen at the
Quen of Englandis handis. You bot tyne your tyme ; for, first, they will never
meit togither, and next, there will nevir be bot discembling and secret hattrent
for a whyle, and at length captivity and utter wrak for our Quen by England. 9
My brother's answer again was, that he lyked not to heir of sic devilisch newes,
nor yet wald he credit them in any sort, as false, ungodly, and unlawfull for
Christians to medle them with. Bassantin answered again, ' Gud Mester I\Iel-
vili tak not that hard opinion of me ; 1 am a Christian of your religion, and
fears God, and purposes never to cast myself in any of the unlawful artis that
ye mean of, bot sa far as Melanthon, wha was a Godly theologue, has declared
and written anent the naturall scyences, that are lawfull and daily red in dyvers
Christian Universities ; in the quhilkis, as in all othir artis, God geves to some
less, to some raair and clearer knawledge than till others ; be the quhilk knaw-
ledge I have also that at length, that the kingdom of England sail of rycht
fall to the crown of Scotland, and that ther are some born at this instant, that
sail bruik lands and heritages in England. Bot alace it will cost many their
lyves, and many bludy battailes wilbe fouchten first, or [ere] it tak a sattled
effect ; and be my knawledge,' said he, 'the Spaniards will be helpers, and
will tak a part to themselves for ther labours, quhilk they wilbe laith to kve
again.' " If the report of this conference be quite faithful, we must certainly
do Bassantin the justice to say, that the most material part of his prophecy
came to pass ; though it might be easy for him to see that, as the sovereign ot
Scotland was heiress-presumptive to the crown of England, she or her heirs had
a near prospect of succeeding. How Bassantin spent his time in Scotland does
not appear; but, as a good protestant, he became a warm supporter of the Earl
of Murray, then struggling for the ascendancy. He died in 1568. His works
are, I, A System of Astronomy, published for the third time in 1593, by John
Tornopsius. 2, A Treatise of the Astrolabe, published at Lyons in 1555, and
reprinted at Paris in 1617. 3, A Pamphlet on the Calculation of Nativities.
4, A Treatise on Arithmetic. 5, Music on the Principles of the Platonists. 6,
On Mathematics in general. It is understood that, in the composition of iheae
works, he required considerable literary assistance, being only skilled in his own
language, which was never then made the vehicle of scientific discussion.
BASsOL, John, a distinguished disciple of the famous Duns Scotus, is stated
by Mackenzie to have been born in the reign of Alexander III. He studied
under Duns at Oxford, and with him, in 1304, removed to Paris, where he
resided some time in the University, and, in 1313, entered the order of the
Minorites. After this he was sent by the general of his order to Rheims, where
he applied himself to the study of medicine, and taught philosophy for seven
or eight years. In 1322, he removed to Mechlin in Brabant, and after teach-
ing theology in that city for Ave and twenty years, died in 1347.
Bassol's only work was one entitled, " Commentaria Seu Lecture in Quatuor
Digitized by
Google
162
JOHN BASSOL.
Libros Sententiarum," to which were attached some miscellaneous papers on
Philosophy and Medicine. The book was published in folio at Paris, in 1517.
Bassol was known by the title, Doctor Ordinatissimw, or the most Methodical
Doctor, on account of the clear and accurate method in which he lectured and
composed. The fashion of giving such titles to the great masters of the schools
was then in its prime. Thus, Duns Scotus himself was styled Doctor SubtiUs,
vr the Subtle Doctor. St Francis of Assis was called the Seraphic Doctor;
Alexander Hales the Irrefragable Doctor ; Thomas Aquinas the Angelical Doc-
tor ; Hendricus Bonicollius the Solemn Doctor ; Richard Middleton the Solid
Doctor ; Francis Mayron the Acute Doctor ; Durandus a S. Portiano the mott
Resolute Doctor ; Thomas Hredwardin the Profound Doctor ; Joannes Ruys-
brokius the Divine Doctor, and so forth ; the title being in every case founded
upon some extravagant conception of the merit of the particular individual,
adopted by his contemporaries and disciples. In this extraordinary class of
literati, John Bassol, as implied by his soubriquet, shines conspicuous for order
and method ; yet we are told that his works contain most of the faults which
are generally laid to the charge of the schoolmen. The chief of these is an
irrational devotion to the philosophy of Aristotle, as expounded by Thomas Aqui-
nas. In the early ages of modern philosophy, this most splendid exertion of
the human mind was believed to be irreconcileable to the Christian doctrines ;
and at the very time when the Angelical Doctor wrote his commentary, it stood
prohibited by a decree of Pope Gregory IX. The illustrious Thomas not only
restored Aristotle to favour, but inspired his followers with an admiration of his
precepts, which, as already mentioned, was not rational Not less was their ad-
miration of the " angelical " commentator, to whom it was long the fashion
among them to offer an incense little short of blasphemy. A commentator upon
an original work of Thomas Aquinas, endeavours, in a prefatory discourse, to
prove, in so many chapters, that he wrote his books not without the special in-
fusion of the spirit of God Almighty ; that, in writing them, he received many
things by revelation ; and, that Christ had given anticipatory testimony to his
writings. By way of bringing the works of St Thomas into direct comparison
with the Holy Scriptures, the same writer remarks, " that, as in the first General
Councils of the church, it was common to have the Bible unfolded upon the
Altar, so, in the last General Council (that of Trent), St Thomas' 'Sum' was
placed beside the Bible, as an inferior rule of Christian doctrine." Peter Labl>6,
a learned Jesuit, with scarcely less daring flattery, styles St Thomns an angel,
and says that, as he learned many things from the angels, so he taught the an
gels some things; that St Thomas had said what St Paul was not permitted to
utter ; and that he speaks of God as if he had seen him, and of Christ as if he
had been his voice. One might almost suppose that these learned gentlemen,
disregarding the sentiment afterwards embodied by Gray, that flattery soothes
not the cold ear of death, endeavoured by their praises to make interest with
the " angelical" shade, not doubting that he was able to obtain for them a larger
share of paradise than they could otherwise hope for. In the words of the au-
thor of the Reflections on Learning, " the sainted Thomas, if capable of hearing
these inordinate flatteries, must have blushed to receive them."
Bassol was also characterised, in common with all the rest of the schoolmen,
by a ridiculous nicety in starting questions and objections. Overlooking the
great moral aim of what they were expounding, he and his fellows lost them-
selves in minute and subtle inquiries after physical exactness, started at every
straw which lay upon their path, and measured the powers of the mind by grains
and scruples. It must be acknowledged, in favour of this singular class of m?r,
that they improved natural reason to a great height, and that much of what
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
ANDREW BAXTER.
163
is most admired in modern philosophy is only borrowed from them. At the
same time, their curiosity in raising and prosecuting frivolous objections to the
Christian system is to be regretted as the source of much scepticism and irreli-
gion. To many of their arguments, ridicule only is due ; and it would perhaps
be impossible for the gravest to restrain a smile at the illustrissimo mentioned
by Cardan, one of whose arguments was declared to be enough to puzzle all
posterity, and who himself wept in his old age, because he had become unable
to understand his own books.
The works of Bassol have been long forgotten, like those of his brethren ;
but it is not too much to say regarding this great man of a former day, that the
same powers of mind which he spent upon the endless intricacies of the school
philosophy, would certainly, in another age and sphere, have tended to the
permanent advantage of his fellow creatures. He was so much admired by his
illustrious preceptor, that that great man used to say, " If only Joannes Bassio-
lis be present, I have a sufficient auditory."
BAXTER, Andrew, an ingenious moral and natural philosopher, was the
son of a merchant in Old Aberdeen, and of Mrs Elizabeth Fraser, a lady
connected with some of the considerable families of that name in the north of
Scotland. He was born at Old Aberdeen, in 1686 or 1687, and educated at
the King's College, in his native city. His employment in early life was that of
a preceptor to young gentlemen ; and among others of his pupils were Lord Gray,
Lord Blantyre, and Mr Hay of Drummelzier. In 1723, while resident atDunse
Castle, as preceptor to the last-mentioned gentleman, he is known, from letters which
passed between him and Henry Home, afterwards Lord Kaimes, to have been
deeply engaged in both physical and metaphysical disquisitions. As Mr Home's
paternal seat of Kaimes was situated within a few miles of Dunse Castle, the si-
milarity of their pursuits appears to have brought them into an intimate friend-
ship and correspondence. Tins, however, was soon afterwards broken off. Mr
Home, who was a mere novice in physics, contended with Mr Baxter that mo-
tion was necessarily the result of a succession of causes. The latter endeavoured,
at first with much patience and good temper, to point out the error of this ar-
gument ; but, teased at length with what he conceived to be sophistry purposely
employed by his antagonist to show his ingenuity in throwing doubts on princi-
ples to which he himself annexed the greatest importance, and on which he had
founded what he believed to be a demonstration of those doctrines most material
to the happiness of mankind, he finally interrupted the correspondence, saying,
" I shall return you all your letters ; mine, if not already destroyed, you may
likewise return; we shall burn them and our philosophical heats together."
About this time, Mr Baxter married Alice Mabane, daughter of a respectable
clergyman in Berwickshire. A few years afterwards he published his great
work, entitled, " An Enquiry into the nature of the Human Soul, wherein its
immateriality is evinced from the principles of Reason and Philosophy." This
work was originally without date ; but a second edition appeared in 1737, and
a third in 1745. It has been characterised in the highest terms of panegyric
by Bishop Warburton. " He who would see," says this eminent prelate, " the
justest and precisest notions of God and the soul, may read this book ; one o
the most finished of the kind, in my humble opinion, that the present times,
greatly advanced in true philosophy, have produced." The object of the trea-
tise is to prove the immateriality, and consequently the immortality of the soul,
from the acknowledged principle of the vis inertia of matter. His argument,
according to the learned Lord Woodhouselee, is as follows : " There is a resis-
tance to any change of its present state, either of rest or motion, essential to
matter, which is inconsistent with its possessing any active power. Those, there-
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
1G4 ANDREW BAXTEK.
fore, which have been called the natural powers of matter, as gravity, attraction,
elasticity, repulsion, are not powers implanted in matter, or possible to be
made inherent in it, but are impulses or forces impressed upon it ab extra. The
consequence of the want of active power in matter is, that all those effects com-
monly ascribed to its active powers, must be produced upon it by an inimaterial
being. Hence we discover the necessity for the agency of a constant and uni-
versal Providence in the material world, who is Goo ; and hence we must admit
the necessity of an immaterial mover in all spontaneous motions, which is the
Soul ; for that which can arbitrarily effect a change in the present state of
matter, cannot be matter itself, which resists all change of its present state : and
since this change is effected by willing, that thing which wills in us is not mat-
ter, but an immaterial substance. From these fundamental propositions, the
author deduces as consequences, the necessary immortality of the soul, as being
a simple uncompoiinded substance, and thence incapable of decay, and its capa-
city of existing, and being conscious when separated from the body.' 9 In 1741,
leaving his family in Berwick, he went abroad with his pupil Mr Hay, and
resided for several years at Utrecht. In the course of various excursions which
he made through Holland, France, and Germany, lie was generally well received
by the literati He returned to Scotland in 1747, and, till his death in 1750,
resided constantly at Whittingham in East Lothian, a seat of his pupil Mr Hay.
His latter uurks were, " Matho, sive Cosniotheoria puerilis, Dialogue," a piece
designed for the use of his pupil, and, " An Appendix to his Enquiry into the
nature of the human soul, 9 ' wherein he endeavoured to remove some difficulties,
which liad been started against his notions of the vis inertia of matter by
Maclaurin, in his " Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries "
In 1779, the Hev. Dr Duncan of South Warnborough published, " The evidence
of reason in proof of the Immortality of the Soul, independent on the more
abstruse enquiry into the nature of matter and, spirit— collected from the MSS.
of the late Mr Baxter."
The learning and abilities of Mr Baxter are sufficiently displayed in his
writings, which, however, were of more note in the literary world during his own
time than now. He was very studious, and sometimes sat up whole nights read-
ing and writing. His temper was cheerful ; he was a friend to innocent merri-
ment, and of a disposition truly benevolent In conversation he was modest,
and not apt to make much show of the extensive knowledge he possessed. In
the discharge of the several social and relative duties of life, his conduct was
exemplary. He had the most reverential sentiments of the Deity, of whose
presence and immediate support, he had always a strong impression upon his
mind. He paid a strict attention to economy, though he dressed elegantly, and
was not parsimonious in his other expenses. It is known also that there were
several occasions on which he acted with remarkable disinterestedness ; and so
far was he from courting preferment, that he repeatedly declined offers of that
kind that were made to him, on the condition of his taking orders in the Church
of England. The French, German, and Dutch languages were spoken by him
with much ease, and the Italian tolerably ; and he read and wrote them all,
together with the Spanish. His friends and correspondents were numerous and
respectable ; among them are particularly mentioned, Mr Pointz, preceptor to
the Duke of Cumberland, and Bishop Warburton. While travelling on the Con-
tinent, he had formed an intimate friendship with the celebrated John Wilkes ;
and he accordingly dedicated to this gentleman his Appendix to the Enquiry.
After the death of Mr Baxter, Mr Wilkes published a remarkably interesting
letter, the last but one which he had received from his friend, exhibiting in a
very striking manner the deep impression which the excellent principles of M*
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BAYNE (o* BAINE)
, ' ^y 8 &« dying philoBODher « .,«i« t , ^ *> ^ 8fcate <* my dig.
0"° wth •incepity assure vm. ™ j y remark » on what I read But l
"Me ; to me ; or LZl C ^T? ^ ^ Wilke *' dea * ^^SbJtr
P««. and p fe MW A1 , ^^J^J*" k>Ui pride, but heighten, hap.
2 ** -ri-Si dtoL^^B^r -'«*• ™--d i
XTb^r" •• puni=: " w».K; x t r tar -.v*- his
from *« • to CO,Tect ■«l niake better "1 « r7..h , " * future "^te
^om the pa,„ 8 Md jnfi £ ^ &*, what i. it to be th*
7 *• weakness of my distressed Ifnfh ^X — though I am satisfied just no.v
*»• Power and goodnCa^et £* 11 " much the h ™»*»*> effect of the
.•!*T honestly on the nature of thaf *\2 L " ° ,v,n « to m y narW
•nort wh en ^ HouhaJTI , J?* d « ad '"bstanee, »««/«•. It is as utterly
<UTOie no»»r j:a> ""»«», as when the leaf withers s-j •» • T ""v
fi_ . J P° wer ' differently applied that a- . . m " ien - And it is the same
ti.hTt.1,1^ &mi,jr - H « «>», the Hs/jllp ^^ uni "™'ty, by whom
•ir^fi""*' but »fterw.rd g receWe d ^ B T e ' *"• licensed » the Scou
Trretttir^B f faith at = t, ' 0,, • * nd died in the
22 ' - which hi. -UM^",,!^^"^!- *r beyond the r„™,
«f the K„ MU HallCollI^^^^^^
own. New Jersey. The two eoiiesgues. however.
106
JAMES BAYNE (on BAINE).
did not co-operate harmoniously, although both enjoyed a high degree of popularity.
Mr Bayne displayed great public spirit during his connection with the Established
church, defending her spiritual liberties and independence in the church courts, and
offering a determined opposition to the policy of the moderate or ruling party. The
deposition of Mr Thomas Gillespie, of Carnock, the founder of the Belief church,
made a powerful impression on his mind, and undoubtedly had a strong influence in
inducing him to resign his pastoral charge in Paisley. But the immediate cause of
that resolution was a keen dispute which took place in the kirk-session of his parish,
respecting the appoiutment of a session-clerk. The session contested the right of
appointment with the town-council ; the whole community took an interest in the
dispute; and the case came at last to be litigated in the Court of Session, which decided
in favour of the town-council. Unhappily, Mr Bayne and his colleague took opposite
sides in this petty contest, and a painful misunderstanding was produced betwixt
them, followed by consequences probably affecting the future destinies of both. Mr
Bayne refers to these differences in his letter of resignation, addressed to the Pres-
bytery, dated 10th February, 1766 : — '• They (the Presbytery) know not how far I
am advanced in life, who see not that a house of worship, so very large as the High
Church, and commonly so crowded too, must be very unequal to my strength ; and
this burden was made more heavy by denying me a .ession to assist me in the com-
nion concerns of the parish, which 1 certainly had a title to. But the load became
quite intolerable, when, by a late unhappy process, the just and uatural right of the
common session was wrested from us, which drove away from acting in it twelve men
of excellent character." Mr Bayne joined the Relief church, then in its infancy,
having, even whilst in the Establishment, held ministerial communion with Mr Simpson,
minister of Bellsbill congregation, the first Relief church in the west of Scotland.
In his letter of resignation, already quoted, Mr Bayne assured his former brethren
that the change of his condition, and the charge he had accepted, would make no
change in his creed, nor in his principles of Christian and ministerial communion —
" Nay (he adds), none in my cordial regard to the constitution and interests of the
Church of Scotland, which I solemnly engaged to support some more than thirty
years ago, and hope to do so while I live. At the same time I abhor persecution in
every form, and that abuse of church power of late, which to me appears inconsistent
with humanity, with the civil interests of the nation, and destructive of the ends of
our office as ministers of Christ." On the 24th December, Mr Bayne accepted a
call to become minister of the College Street Relief Church, Edinburgh, and his
induction took place on the 13th February, 1766, three days after his resignation of
his charge in Paisley. As bis demission fell to be adjudicated upon by the General
Assembly, in May of that year, his name remained for the present upon the roll of the
Establishment, and so little did he yet consider himself separated from the communion
of that church, that when the half-yearly sacrament of the Lord's Supper came round
in Edinburgh, soon after his settlement, after preaching in his own church in the
forenoon, he went over in the afternoon, at the head of his congregation, to the
New Greyfriars' church, and joined in the ordinance with the congregation of the
Rev. Dr Erskine. At the Assembly in May, Mr Bayne, in obedience to a citation,
appeared at the bar, and was declared to be no longer a minister of the Church of
Scotland, and all clergymen of that body were prohibited from holding ministerial
communion with him. Mr Bayne defended the course he had taken in a review of
the proceedings of the Assembly, entitled, " Memoirs of Modern Church Reforma-
tion, or the History of the General Assembly, 1766, and occasional reflections upon the
proceedings of said Assembly ; with a brief account and vindication of the Presbytery
of Relief, by James Bayne, A.M., minister of the gospel at Edinburgh." lie
denounces, with indignant severity, the injustice of his having been condemned by
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
CARDINAL BEATON.
167
the Assembly without a libel, merely for having accepted a charge in another church,
" in which (says he), I presumed, they could find nothing criminal ; for often had
ministers resigned their charge upon different accounts, and justifiable ; nay, some
have given it up for the more entertaining and elegant employ of the stage, who were
not called in question or found delinquents. This was a palpable hit at Home, the
author of " Douglas/' who sat in the Assembly as a ruling elder, to aid Dr Robertson
in punishing Bayne. After a ministry of 60 years, Mr Bayne died at Edinburgh, on
the 17th January, 1790, in his eightieth year. lie was 24 years minister of the
College Street Relief congregation, Edinburgh. His popularity as a preacher, his
talents for ecclesiastical affairs, his acquirements as a scholar and a theologian,
and his sound judgment and weight of character, gave him great influence; and it
was mainly to bis large and enlightened views that the Relief church was. indebted
for the position to which it attained, even during his lifetime, as well as for
retaining, till it was finally merged in the United Presbyterian church, the catho-
lic constitution on which it had been founded by Gillespie and Boston. Mr Bayne
was an uncompromising opponent of whatever he considered to be a violation of
public morality. In 1 770 he published a discourse, entitled, M The Theatre Licen-
tious and Perverted," administering a stern rebuke to Mr Samuel Foote for his
Minor ; a drama, in which the characters of Whitefield, and other zealous minis-
ters were beld up to profane ridicule. The dramatist considered it necessary to reply
to Mr Bayne's strictures, in an «« Apology for the Minor, in a letter to the Rev.
Mr Bayne/' resting his defence upon the plea that he only satirized the vices and
follies of religious pretenders. A volume of Mr Bayne's discourses was published
in 1778.
BEATON, or BEATOUN (Cardinal) David, who beld the rectory of Campsie,
the abbacy of Aberbrothick, the bishopric of Mirepoix in France, the cardinalship of
St Stephen in Monte Ccelio, and the chancellorship of Scotland, and who was the
chief of the Roman Catholic party in Scotland in the earlier age of the reformation.
was descended from an ancient family in Fife, possessed of the barony of Balfour,
and was born in the year 1494. He was educated at the college of St Andrews,
where be completed his courses of polite literature and philosophy, but was sent
afterwards to the university of Paris, where be studied divinity for several years.
Entering into holy orders, he had the rectory of Campsie and the abbacy of Aber-
brothick bestowed upon him, by his uncle, James Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrew's,
wbo retained one-half of the rents of the abbacy to bis own use. Possessing good
abilities and a lively fancy, David Beaton became a great favourite with James V ,
wbo, in 1510, sent him to reside as his ambassador at the court of France. He
returned to Scotland in 1525, and, still growing in the King's favour, was, in 1528
made lord privy seal.
In the year 1533, he was again sent on a mission to the French court.
Beaton on this occasion was charged to refute certain calumnies which it was
supposed the English had circulated against his countrymen, to study the preserva-
tion of the ancient league between the two nations, and to conclude a treaty of
marriage between James and Magdalene, the daughter of Francis I. If unsuccessful
in any of these points, he was furnished with letters which he was to deliver to
tbe parliament at Paris, and depart immediately for Flanders, for the purpose of
forming an alliance with the emperor. In every part of his embassy, Beaton seems
to have succeeded to the utmost extent of his wishes, the marriage excepted, which
was delayed on account of the declining state of health in which Magdalene then
was. How long Beaton remained at tbe French court at this time has not been
ascertained ; but it is certain that he was exceedingly agreeable to Francis, who,
perceiving bis great abilities, and aware of tbe influence he possessed over the mind
Digitized by
Google
1 08 CARDINAL BEATON.
of the Scottish King, used every expedient to attach him to the interests of France,
being afraid of the predilection of James towards his uncle, Henry VIII., who also,
be was aware, was strengthening, by all the influence he possessed, his interest at
the Scottish court.
In 1536, finding a second embassy also unsuccessful, king James set sail for
France, and proceeded to the court, where he was most cordially welcomed ;
and, unable to deny his suit, especially as it was exceedingly agreeable to
Magdalene herself, Francis consented to their union, which was celebrated
with great rejoicings on the 1st of January, 1537. On the 28th of May
following, the royal pair landed in Scotland, being conveyed by a French
fleet. Magdalene was received by the Scottish nation with the utmost cor-
diality; but she was already far gone in a decline, and died on the 7th of
July following, to the inexpressible grief of the whole nation. It was on the
death of this queen that mournings were first worn in Scotland. James, how-
ever, in expectation of this event, had fixed his attention upon Mary of
Guise, widow of the Duke of Longueville ; and Beaton, who by this time had
returned to Scotland, was dispatched immediately to bring her over. On this
occasion he was appointed by the king of France bishop of Mirepoix, to which
see he was consecrated, December 5th, 1537. The following year, he was. at
the recommendation of the French king, elevated to the cardinalship by the
Pope, which was followed by a grant on the part of the French king for services
already done and for those which he might afterwards do to his majesty, allowing
liis heirs to succeed him to his estate in France, though the said heirs should be
born and live within the kingdom of Scotland, and though they should have no
particular letter or act of naturalization in that country. Notwithstanding of the
obligations he was thus laid under by the king of France, he returned to Scot-
land with Mary of Guise, and shortly after obtained the entire management of
the diocese and primacy of St Andrews, under his uncle James Beaton, whom he
e/entually succeeded in that office.
A severe persecution was commenced at litis time by the cardinal against
all who were suspected of favouring the reformed doctrines. Many were forced to
recant, and two persons, Norman Gourlay and David Straiton, were burnt at the
Hood of Greenside, near Edinburgh. The pope, as a further mark of his re-
spect, and to quicken his zeal, declared Beaton Legatu* a latere: and ho,
to manifest his gratitude, brought to St Andrews the earls of Huntley, Arran,
Monachal, and Montrose, the lords of Fleming, Lindsay, Erskine, and Seaton,
Gavin archbishop of Glasgow (chancellor), William bishop of Aberdeen, Henry
bishop of Galloway, John bishop of Brechin, and William bishop of Durablane,
the abbots of Melrose Dunfermline, Lindores, and Kinloss, with a multitude o :
priors, deans, doctors of divinity, &c., all of whom being assembled in the cathe-
dral church, he harangued them from his chair of state on the dangers that hung
over the true catholic church from the proceedings of king Henry in England, and
particularly from the great increase of heresy in Scotland, where it had long been
spreading, and found encouragement even in the court of the king. As he pro-
ceeded, he denounced Sir John Borthwick, provost of Linlithgow, as one of the most
industrious incendiaries, and caused him to be cited before them for maintaining
(hut the Pope had no greater authority over Christians than any other bishop
or prelate — that indulgences granted by the pope were of no force or effect, but
devised to amuse the people and deceive poor ignorant souls — that bishops,
priests, and other clergymen, may lawfully marry — that the heresies commonly
called the heresies of England and their new liturgy were to be commended by
all good Christians, and to be embraced by them — that the people of Scotland
%re blinded by their clergy, and profess not the true faith — that cluircbnien
Digitized by
Google
CARDINAL BEATON.
160
ought not to enjoy any temporalities — that the king ought to tmnvert the super-
fluous revenues of the church unto other pious uses — that the church of Scotland
ought to be reformed after the same manner as that of Enginnd m |ftj| the
Canon law was of no force, being contrary to the law of (i«d — that ihe orders
of friars and monks should be abolished, as had been done in England — -that he
had openly called the pope a Simoniac, because he had Bold, spiritual things —
that he had read heretical books and the New Testament in Knglish, with treatises
written by Melanchthon, CEcolainpadius, and other heretic and that lie not only
read them himself but distributed them among others — and lastly, that ho openly
disowned the authority of the Roman see. These articles being read, and Sir
John neither appearing himself nor any person for him, he wns set down as a
confessed heretic, and condemned as an heresiarch. His goods were ordered to
be confiscated and himself burnt in effigy, if he could not be apprehended, and
all manner of persons forbidden to entertain or converse tvitli him, under the
pain of excommunication or forfeiture. This sentence ffli passed against him
on the 28th of May, and executed the same day so far as* wm in ihe power of
the court, his effigy being burnt in the market place of St Andrews and two days
after at Edinburgh. This was supposed by many to be intended ris a gratifying
spectacle to Mary of Guise, the new queen, who had only a short time before
arrived from France.
Sir John Borthwick, in the meantime, being informed of these violent
proceedings, fled into England, where he was received with open anus by
Henry VIII., by whom he was sent on an embassy to the protest ant princes
of Germany, for the purpose of forming with them a defensive league again*!
the pope. Johnston, in his Heroes of Scotland, says, tli.it "John Borth-
wick, a noble knight, was as much esteemed by king James V. for his exem-
plar and amiable qualities, as he was detested by the order of the priesthood
on account of his true piety, for his unfeigned profession of which he was con*
demned ; and though absent, his effects confiscated, and his effigy t after brin^
subjected to various marks of ignominy, burnt," as we have above related, l * This
condemnation," Johnston adds, " he answered by a most learned apology, which
may yet be seen in the records of the martyrs, [Fox,] and having survived many
years, at last died in peace in a good old age."
While these affairs were transacted, Henry, anxious to destroy that inter-
est which the French government had so long maintained in Scotland to
the prejudice of England, sent into that kingdom the bishop of St Davids
with some books written in the vulgar tongue upon the doctrines of Chris-
tianity, which he recommended to his nephew carefully to peruse, and to
weigh well their contents. James, who was more addicted to his amusements,
than to the study of the doctrines and duties of Christianity, gave the hooka
to be perused by some of his courtiers, who, being allocked to the clerical
order, condemned them as heretical, and congratulated thi king upon hav-
ing so fortunately escaped the contamination of his royal eyes by such pesti-
ferous writings. There were, however, other matters proposed to the king
by this embassy than the books, though it was attempted by the clerical fan ion
to persuade the people that the books were all that" was intend i <l ; for, shortly- after,
the same bishop, accompanied by WUliam Howard, brother of the Uuke of Nor-
folk, came to the king at Stirling so suddenly, that he was not aware of their
coming till they were announced as arrived in the town. This no doubt was
planned by Henry to prevent the intriguing of the priests and the French fHciinn
beforehand. His offers were of a nature so advantageous, that James acceded
to them without any scruple, and readily agreed to meet with his uncle Henry
on an appointed day, when they were to settle all matters in d 'pendente b©-
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
170
CARDINAL BEATON.
ween them for the welfare of both kingdom*. Nothing could be more terrible
to the clergy, of which Beaton was now confessedly the head hi Scotland, than
the agreement of the two kings ; they saw in it nothing short of the loss of all
that was dear to them, their altars, their revenues, and of course their influence,
and they hastened to court from all quarters to weep over their religion about to
be betrayed by an unholy conference, which, being impious in its purposes,
could not fail, they said, to end in the ruin of the kingdom. Having by these
representations made a strong impression upon the king, who was ignorant and
wperstitious, they then bribed, by the promise of large sums of money, the cour-
iers who had the most powerful influence over him, to dissuade him from the
journey he had promised to make into England, which they successfully did, and
so laid the foundation of a quarrel which ended in a war, die disastrous issue of
which, preying upon the mind of James, brought him to an untimely end.
In the whole of these transactions, Beaton, a zealous churchman and the hired
tool of France, was the chief actor, and knowing that the king was both cove-
tous and needy, he overcame his scruples, by persuading the clergy to promise him
a yearly subsidy of thirty thousand gold crowns, and even their whole fortunes, if
this should be thought necessary. As he had no design, however, to be at any unne-
cessary expense himself, nor meant to be burdensome to bis brethren, be pointed
out the estates of those who rebelled against the authority of the Pope and the ma-
jesty of the king as proper subjects for confiscation, whereby there might be raised
annually the sum of one hundred thousand crowns of gold. In order to attain
this object, he requested that, for himself and his brethren, they might only be
allowed to name, as they were precluded themselves from sitting in judgment in
criminal cases, a lord chief justice, before whom, were he once appointed, there
could be neither difficulty in managing the process, nor delay in procuring judg-
ment, since so many men hesitated not to read the books of the New and Old Testa-
ments, to discuss and disown the power of the Pope, to contemn the ancient rites
of the church, and, instead of reverencing and obeying, dared to treat with deri-
sive, contempt those individuals that had been consecrated to God, and whose
business it was to guide them in their spiritual concerns. This wicked counsel,
as it suited both the inclinations and the necessities of the king, was quickly
complied with, and they nominated for this new court of inquisition a judge every
way according to their own hearts, James Hamilton, (a natural brother of the
Earl of Arran,) whom they had attached to their interests by large gifts, and
who was Hilling to be reconciled to the king, whom he had lately offended, by
any service, however crueL
The suspicions which the king entertained against his nobility from this
time forward were such as to paralyze his efforts whether for good or evil
The inroads of the English, too, occupied his whole attention, and the shame-
ful overthrow of his army which had entered England by the Solway, threw
him into such a state of rage and distraction, that his health sunk under it,
and he died at Falkland on the 13th of December, 1542, leaving the king-
dom, torn by faction, and utterly defenceless, to his only surviving legitimate
child, Mary, then no more than five days old. The sudden demise of the
king, while it quashed the old projects of the Cardinal, only set him upon
forming new ones still more daring and dangerous. Formerly he had laboured
to direct the movements of the king by humouring his passions, flattering his
vanity, and administering to his vicious propensities. Now, from the infancy oi
the successor, the death, the captivity, or the exile of the most influential part
of the nobility, and the distracted state of the nation in general, he conceived
that it would be easy for him to seize upon the government, which he might now
administer for the infant queen, solely to his own mind. Accordingly, with the
Digitized by
Google
CARDINAL BEATON. 171
assistance of one Henry Balfour, a mercenary priest, whom he suborned, he is
said to have forged a will for the king, in which he was himself nominated agent,
with three of the nobility as his assessors or assistants. According to Knox, these
were Argyle, Huntley, and Murray ; but Buchanan, whom we think a very suf-
ficient authority in this case, says that he also assumed as an assessor his cousin
by the mother's side, the Karl of Arran, who was, after Mary, the next heir to
the crown, but was believed to be poorly qualified by the humbler virtues for
discharging the duties of a private life, and still less fitted either by courage or
capacity for directing the government of a kingdom. Aware of the danger that
might arise from delay, the cardinal lost not a moment in idle deliberation. The
will which he had forged he caused to be proclaimed at the cross of Edinburgh
on the Monday immediately succeeding the king's death.
Arran, the unambitious presumptive heir to the throne, would, had he
been left to himself, have peaceably acquiesced in the 'cardinal's arrange-
ments, for he had the approbation of the queen mother, and, by presents
and promises, had made no inconsiderable party among the nobility. But
his friends, the Hamiltons, says Buchanan, more anxious for their own
aggrandisement than for his honour, incessantly urged him not to let such
an occasion slip out of his hands, for they would rather have seen the whole
kingdom in flames than have been obliged to lead obscure lives in private sta-
tions. Hatred, too, to the Cardinal, who, from his persecuting and selfish
spirit, was very generally detested, and the disgrace of living in bondage to
a priest, procured them many associates. The near prospect which Arran now
had of succeeding to the crown, must also have enlisted a number of the more
wary and calculating politicians upon his side. But what was of still more con-
sequence to him, Henry of England who had carried all die principal prisoners
taken in the late battle to London, marched them in triumph through that me-
tropolis, and given them in charge to his principal nobility, no sooner heard of the
death of die king than he recalled the captives to court, entertained them in the
most friendly manner, aud having taken a promise from each of them that they
would promote as far as possible, without detriment to the public interests, or
disgrace to themselves, a marriage between his son and the young queen, he sent
them back to Scotland, where they arrived on the 1st of January, 1543. Along
with the prisoners the Earl of Angus and his brother were restored to their coun-
try, after an exile of fifteen years, and all were received by the nation with the
most joyful gratulations.
It was in vain that the Cardinal had already taken possession of the
regency. Arran, by the advice of the Laird of Grange, called an assem-
bly of the nobility, which finding the will upon which the Cardinal had as-
assumed the regency forged, set him aside and elected Arran in his place. This
was peculiarly grateful to a great proportion of the nobles, three hundred oi
whom, with Arran at their head, were found in a proscription list among the
king's papers, furnished to him by the Cardinal Arran, it was well known,
was friendly to the reformers, and his imbecility of mind being unknown, the
greatest expectations were formed from the moderation of his character. In the
parliament that met in the month of March following, public affairs put on a
much more promising appearance than could have been expected. The king of
England, instead of an army to waste or to subjugate the country, sent an am-
bassador to negotiate a marriage between the young queen and his son, and a
lasting peace upon the most advantageous terms. The Cardinal, who saw in this
alliance with protestant England the downfall of his church in Scotland, opposed
himself, with the whole weight of the clergy at his back, and all the influence
of the Queen-dowager, to every thing like pacific measures, and that with so
Digitized by
Google
172 CARDINAL BEATON.
much violence, that he was by the general consent of the house shut up in a
separate chamber, while the votes were taken ; after which every thing was
settled in the most amicable manner, and it was agreed that hostages should
be sent into England for die fulfilment of the stipulated articles.
The Cardinal in the meantime was committed as a prisoner into the hands of
Lord Seton, who kept him first in Dalkeith, afterwards in Seton, and by and
bye, something being bestowed on Lord Seton and the old Laird of Lethington,
by way of compensation, he was suffered to resume his own castle at St Andrews,
in the great confusion and uncertainty in public affairs that had prevailed for a
number of years, trade had been at an entire stand, and now that a lasting peace
seemed to be established, the merchants began to bestir themselves in all quar-
ters, and a number of vessels were sent to sea laden with the most valuable mer-
chandise. Edinburgh itself fitted out twelve, and the other towns on the eas-
tern coast in proportion to their wealth, all of them coasting the English shores,
and entering their harbours with the most undoubting confidence. Restored,
however, to liberty, the Cardinal, enraged at the opposition he had encountered,
and writhing under the disgrace of detected fraud, strained every nerve to break
up the arrangements that had been so happily concluded. Seconded by the
Queen-dowager, who, like him, hated the Douglasses, and trembled for the
established religion, any change in which would necessarily involve a rupture of
the ancient treaty with France, he convoked, at St Andrews, soon after his re-
turn to that place, an assembly of the clergy, to determine upon a certain sum
of money to be given by them in case their measures for the preservation of the
catholic church should involve the country in a war with England. The whole
of the bishops not being present, the meeting was adjourned to the month of
June ; but the Cardinal had the address to prevail on those that were present
to give all their own money, their silver plate, and the plate belonging to their
churches, for the maintainance of such a war, besides engaging to enter them-
selves into the army as volunteers, should such a measure be thought necessary.
Aided by this money, with which he wrought upon the avarice and the poverty
of the nobles and excited the clamours of the vulgar, who hated the very name
of an English alliance, the Cardinal soon found himself at the bead of a for-
midable party, which treated the English ambassador with the greatest haughti-
ness, in the hope of forcing him out of the country before the arrival of the day
stipulated by the treaty with the regent for the delivery of the hostages. The
ambassador, however, braved every insult till the day arrived, when he waited on
the regent, and complained in strong terms of the manner in which he had been
used, and the affronts that had been put, not upon himself only, but upon his
master, in contempt of the law of nature and of nations, but at the same time
demanded the fulfilment of the treaty and the immediate delivery of the hostages
that had been agreed upon. With respect to the affronts complained of, the re-
gent apologised, stating them to have been committed without his knowledge, and
he promised to make strict enquiry after, and to punish the offenders. With
regard to the hostages, however, he was obliged to confess, that, through the in-
trigues of the Cardinal, it was impossible for him to furnish them. The treaty
being thus broken off, the noblemen who had been captives only a few months
before, ought, according to agreement, to have gone back into England, having
left hostages to that effect Wrought upon, however, by the Cardinal and the
clergy, they refused to redeem the faith they had pledged, and abandoned the
friends they had left behind them to their fate. The only exception to this base-
ness was the Earl of Cassilis, who had left two brothers as hostages. Henry
was so much pleased with this solitary instance of good faith, that he set him
free along with his brothers, and sent him home loaded with gifts. He at the
Digitized by
Google
CARDINAL BEATON.
173
i time seized upon all the Scottish vessels, a great number of which had been
lately fitted out, as we have stated, and were at this time in the English harbour*
and road-steads, confiscated the merchandise, and made the merchants and the
mariners prisoners of war. This, while it added to the domestic miseries of
Scotland, served also to fan the flames of dissension, which burned more fiercely
than ever. The (action of the Cardinal and the Queen-dowager, entirely de-
rated to France, now sent ambassadors thither to state their case as utterly des-
perate, unless they were supported from that country. In particular, they re-
quested that Matthew Earl of Lennox might be ordered home, in order that they
might set him up as a rival to the Hamiltons, who were already the objects of
his hatred, on account of their having waylaid and killed his father at Linlithgow.
Arran laboured to strengthen his party in the best manner he could ; and for
this end resolved to possess himself of the infant Queen, who had hitherto re-
mained at Linlithgow in the charge of her mother the Queen-dowager. The
Cardinal, however, was too wary to be thus circumvented, and assembling his
faction, took possession of Linlithgow, where he lived at free quarters upon the
inhabitants, on pretence of being a guard to the Queen. Lennox, in the mean-
time, arrived from Prance, and was received by the regent with great kindness,
each of them dissembling the hatred he bore to the other, and having informed
his friends of the expectations he had been led to form he proceeded to join the
Queen at Linlithgow, accompanied by upwards of four thousand men. Arran,
who had assembled all his friends in and about Edinburgh for the purpose of
breaking through to the Queen, now found himself completely in the back
ground, having, by the imbecility of his character, entirely lost the confidence
of the people, and being threatened with a law-suit by the friends of Lennox to
deprive him of his estates, his father having married his mother, Janet Beaton,
an aunt of the Cardinal, while his first wife, whom he had divorced, was still
alive. He now thought of nothing but making his peace with the Cardinal To
this the Cardinal was not at all averse, as he wished to make Arran his tool ra-
ther than to crush him entirely. Delegates of course were appointed by both
parties, who met at Kirkliston, a village about midway between Edinburgh and
Linlkhgow, and agreed that the Queen should be carried to Stirling; the Earl of
Montrose, with the Lords Erskine, Lindsay, and Livingstone, being nominated to
take the superintendence of her education. Having been put in possession of the
infant Queen, these noblemen proceeded with her direct to Stirling Castle,
where she was solemnly inaugurated with the usual ceremonies on the 9th of Sept
1543. The feeble regent soon followed, and before the Queen-mother and the
principal nobility in the church of the Franciscans at Stirling, solemnly abjured
the protestant doctrines, by the profession of which alone he had obtained the
favour of so large a portion of die nation, and for the protection of which he
had been especially called to the regency. In this manner the Cardinal, through
the cowardice of the regent, and the avarice of his friends, obtained all that he
intended by the forged will, and enjoyed all the advantages of ruling, while all
the odium that attended it attached to the imbecile Arran, who was now as much
hated and despised by his own party as he had formerly been venerated by them.
There was yet, however, one thing wanting to establish the power of the Cardi-
nal — the dismissal of Lennox, who, though he had been greatly useful to them
in humbling Arran, was now a serious obstacle in the way of both the Cardinal
and the Queen-mother. They accordingly wrote to the king of France, entreat-
ing that, as Scotland had been restored to tranquillity by his liberality and assis-
tance, he would secure his own good work and preserve the peace which he
bad procured, by recalling Lennox, without which it was impossible it could
be lasting.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
174 CARDINAL BEATON.
Though they were thus secretly labouring to undermine this nobleman, the
Queen-mother and the Cardinal seemed to study nothing so much as how they
might put honour upon him before the people, and in the most effective manner
contribute to his comfort By a constant succession of games and festivals, the
court presented one unbroken scene of gaiety and pleasure. Day after day was
spent in tournaments, and night after night in masquerades. In these festivities,
of which he was naturally fond, Lennox found a keen rival in James Hepburn,
Earl of Bothwell, who had been banished by James V., but had returned aftei
his decease, and was now labouring to obtain the Queen-dowager in marriage
by the same arts that Lennox fancied himself to be so successfully employing.
Both these noblemen were remarkable for natural endowments, and in -the gifts
of fortune they were nearly upon a level. Finding himself inferior, however,
in the sportive strife of arms, Bothwell withdrew from the court in chagrin, leav-
ing the field to his rival undisputed. Lennox, now fancying that he had no-
thing more to do than to reap the harvest of fair promises that had been so
liberally held forth to him, pressed his suit upon the Queen, but learned with
astonishment that she had no intention of taking him for a husband, and so far
from granting him the regency, she had agreed with the Cardinal to preserve it
in the possession of his mortal enemy Arran, whom they expected to be a more
pliant tool to serve their own personal views and purposes. Exasperated to the
highest degree, Lennox swore to be amply revenged, but uncertain as yet what
plan to pursue, departed tor Dunbarton, where be was in the midst of his vassals
and friends. Here he received thirty thousand crowns, sent to increase the
strength of his party by the king of France, who had not yet been informed 01 the
real state of Scotland. Being ordered to consult with the Queen-dowager and the
Cardinal in the distribution of this money, Lennox divided part of it among his
friends, and part he sent to the Queen. The Cardinal, who had expected to
have been intrusted with the greatest share of the money, under the influence of
rage and disappointment, persuaded the vacillating regent to raisd an army and
march to Glasgow, where he might seize upon Lennox and the money at the
same time. Lennox, however, warned of their intentions, raised on the instant
among his vassals and friends upwards of ten thousand men, with which he
marched to Leith, and sent a message to the Cardinal at Edinburgh, that he de-
sired to save him the trouble of coming to fight him at Glasgow, and would give
him that pleasure any day in the fields between Edinburgh and Leith.
This was a new and unexpected mortification to the Cardinal, who, having gained
the regent, imagined he should have gained the whole party that adhered to him;
but the fact was, he had gained only the regent and his immediate dependants,
the great body of the people, who had originally given him weight and influence,
being now so thoroughly disgusted with his conduct, that they had joined the
standard, and now swelled the ranks of his rival The Cardinal, however,
though professing the utmost willingness to accept the challenge, delayed coining
to action from day to day under various pretexts, but in reality that he might
have time to seduce the adherents of his rival, and weary out the patience of his
followers, who, without pay and without magazines, he was well aware could not
be kept for any length of time together. Lennox, finding the war thus
protracted, and himself so completely unfurnished for undertaking a siege,
at the urgent entreaty of his friends, who for the mist part had provided se-
cretly for themselves, made an agreement with the regent, and, proceeding to
Edinburgh, the two visited backwards and forwards, as if all their ancient ani-
mosity had been forgotten. Lennox, however, being advised of treachery, with-
drew in the night secretly to Glasgow, where he fortified, provisioned, and garri-
soned the Bishop's castle, but retired himself to Dunbarton. Here he learned
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
CARDINAL BEATON.
175
that the Douglasses had agreed with the Hamiltons, and that, through the influ-
ence of his enemies, the French king was totally estranged from him. Archibald
Douglas Earl of Angus, and Robert Maxwell, in the meantime, came to Glasgow
with the view of mediating between Lennox and the Regent The Regent,
however, seized them both in a clandestine manner by the way, and made them
close prisoners in the castle of Cadzow. While the two factions were thus
harassing one another to the ruin of their common country, Henry was demand-
ing by letters satisfaction for the breach of treaties and the insults that had been
heaped upon him in the person of his late ambassador. No notice being taken
of these letters, Kenry ordered a large armament, which he had prepared to send
against the coast of Prance, to proceed directly to Leith, and to visit Edinburgh
and the adjacent country with all the miseries o£ war ; and with so much secrecy
and celerity did this armament proceed, that the first tidings heard of it in Scot-
land was its appearance in Iieith roads. Ten thousand men were disembarked on
the 4th May, 1544, a little above Leith, who took possession of that place with-
out the smallest opposition, the inhabitants being mostly abroad in the prosecu-
tion of their business. The Regent and the Cardinal were both at the time in
Edinburgh, and, panic-stricken at the appearance of the enemy, and still more at
the hatred of the citizens, fled with the utmost precipitation towards Stirling.
The English, in the meantime, having landed their baggage and artillery, march-
ed in order of battle towards Edinburgh, which they sacked and set on fire ; then
dispersing themselves over the neighbouring country, they burnt towns, villages,
and gentlemen's seats to the ground, and returning by Edinburgh to Leith, em-
barked aboard their ships and set sail with a fair wind, carrying with them an
immense booty, and with the loss on their part of only a few individuals.
The Cardinal and his puppet the Regent, in the meantime, raised a small
body of forces in the north, with which, finding the English gone, they marched
against Lennox in the west, and laid siege to the castle of Glasgow, which they
battered with brass cannon for a number of days. A truce was at last concluded for
one day, during which the garrison were tampered with, and, on a promise of safety,
| surrendered. They were, however, put to death, with the exception of one or
two individuals. Lennox, now totally deserted by the French, and unable to
i cope with the Cardinal, had no resource but to fly into England, where, through
the medium of his friends, he had been assured of a cordial reception. Before
leaving the country, however, he was determined to inflict signal vengeance upon
| the Hamiltons. Having communicated with William Earl of Glencairn upon the
subject, a day was appointed on which they should assemble with their vassals
at Glasgow, whence they might make an irruption into the territory of the Ham-
I ikons, uhich lay in the immediate neighbourhood. The Regent, informed ot
; this design, with the advice of the Cardinal, resolved to pre-occupy Glasgow.
| Glencairn, however, did not wait the appointed day, but was already in the town,
, and learning the approach of the Hamiltons marched out to give them battle,
1 aided by the citizens, who do not appear to have been friendly to the Regent*
The battle was stoutly contested, and for some time the Hamiltons seemed to
, have the worst of it In the end, however, they gained a complete victory, the
| greater part of the Cuninghames being slain, and among the rest two of tin
1 Earl's sons. Nor was it a bloodless victory to the Hamiltons, several of their
chieftains being slain ; but the severest loss fell upon the citizens of Glasgow,
whose houses were cruelly plundered, and even their doors and window shutters
I destroyed. The friends of Lennox refused to risk another engagement, but they
; insisted that he should keep the impregnable fortress of Dumbarton, where he
might in safety await another revolution in the state of parties, which they prog-
nosticated would take place in a very short time. Nothing, however, could di-
gitized by UOOgle
176 CARDINAL BEATON.
vert him from his purpose ; and, committing: the charge of the castle of Dumbar-
ton to George Stirling, he sailed for England, where he was honourably enter-
tained by king Henry, who settled a pension upon him, and gave him to wife
his niece, Margaret Douglas, a princess in the flower of her age, and celebrated
for every accomplishment becoming the female character. The Queen-dowager,
aware that the faction Lennox had thus left without a leader could not be brought
to submit to Arran, whose levity and imbecility of character they were now per*
fectly acquainted with, nor to the Cardinal, whose cruelty they both hated and
feared, and dreading they might break out into some more desperate insurrec-
tion, condescended to soothe them and to take them under her particular protec-
tion. Arran was delighted to be delivered from such a formidable rival upon
any terms ; and in the next parliament, which met at Linlithgow, he succeeded
in causing Lennox to be declared a traitor, and in having his estates and those
of his friends confiscated, by which he realized considerable sums of money.
The English, during these domestic broils, made a furious inroad into Scotland,
burned Jedburgh and Kelso, and laid waste the whole circumjacent country. Thence
proceeding to Coldingham, they fortified the church and the church tower, in
which they placed a garrison on retiring to their own country. This garrison,
from the love of plunder as well as to prevent supplies for a besieging army,
wasted the neighbouring district to a wide extent. Turning their attention at
last to general interests, the Scottish government, at the head of which was the Car*
dinal, the Queen-dowager, and the nominal Regent Arran, issued a proclamation
for the nobles and the more respectable of the commons to assemble armed, and with
provisions for eight days, to attend the Regent Eight thousand men were speed-
ily assembled, and though it was the depth of winter, they proceeded against
the church and tower of Coldingham without delay. When they had been be-
fore the place only one day and one night, the Regent, informed that the Eng-
lish were advancing from Berwick, took horse, and with a few attendants
galloped in the utmost haste to Dunbar. This inexplicable conduct threw
- the whole army into confusion, and, but for the bravery of one man, Archi-
bald Douglas Earl of Angus, the whole of their tents, baggage, and artillery
would have been abandoned to the enemy. But although Angus and a few of
his friends, at the imminent hazard of their lives, saved the artillery and brought
it in safety to Dunbar, the conduct of the army in general, and of the Regent in
particular, was pusillanimous in the extreme. The spirit of the nation sunk and
the courage of the enemy rose in proportion. Ralph Ivers, and Brian Latoun, the
Ljiglish commanders, oveiTn.it, without meeting with any opposition, the districts
of 31erse, Teviotdale, and Lauderdale, nnd the Forth only seemed to limit their
victorious firms. Angus, who alone of ill the Scottish nobility at. this time grave
any indication of public spirit, indignant at the nation's disgrace and deeply af-
fected with Ins own losses, for he had extensive estates both in IVIersc and Teviot-
ilale, made n vehement representation to the Regent upon the folly of his conduct
in allowing himself to be the dupe of nn ambitious but cowardly priest, who, like
the rest of his brethren, un warlike abroad, wns seditious at home, and, exempt from
danger, wished only the power of wasting the fruit of other men 'a labours upon
his own voluptuousness. Always feeble and always vacillating, the Regent was
:oused by these remonstrances to a momentary exurtion. An order was issued
through the neighbouring counties for all the nobles to attend him, wherever he
should be, without loss of time, and in company with Angus, he set out the
very next day for the borders, their whole retinue not exceeding three hundred
horse. Arrived at Melrose, they determined to wait for their reinforcements,
having yet been joined only by a few individuals from the Alerse. The English,
who were nt Jedburgh, to the number ot five thousand men, having by their
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
CARDINAL BEATON. 177
scouts ascertained the situation and small number of their forces, marched on the
instant to surprise them, before their expected supplies should come tip. The
Scots, however, apprized of their intentions, withdrew to the neighbouring hills,
whence, in perfect security, they watched the movements of their enemies, who,
disappointed in not finding them, wandered about 'during the night in quest of
such spoils as a lately ravaged town could supply, and with the returning dawn
marched back to Jedburgh. The Scots now joined by Norman Lesly, a youth of
great promise, son to the Earl of Rothes, and three hundred men from Fife, with-
drew to the hills which overlook the village of Ancrum, where they were joined
by the Laird of Balcleuch, an active and experienced commander, with a few of
his vassals, who assured him that the remainder would follow immediately. By
the advice of Balcleugh, the troops were dismounted, and the horses under the
care of servants sent to an adjoining hilL The army was formed in the hollow
in the order of battle. The English, as had been anticipated, seeing the horses
going over the hill, supposed the Scots to be in full retreat, and eager to prevent
(heir escape, rushed after them, and ere they were aware, fell upon the Scottish
spears. Taken by surprise, the English troops, though they fought with great
bravery, were thrown into disorder, and sustained a signal defeat, losing in killed
and captured upwards of thirteen hundred men. The loss on the part of the
Scots was two men killed and a few wounded.
In consequence of this victory, the Scots were freed from the incursions of the
English for the ensuing summer ; but it was principally improved by the Regent,
with the advice of the Cardinal, for drawing closer the cords of connexion with
France. An ambassador was immediately despatched to that country with the
tidings— to report in strong terms the treachery of Lennox, and to request re-
inforcements of men and money. These could not at this time indeed well be
spared, as an immediate descent of the English was expected ; yet, in the hopes
of somewhat distracting the measures of Henry, an auxiliary force of three thou-
fuad foot and five hundred horse was ordered, under the command of James Mont-
gomery of Largo, who was also empowered to inquire into the differences between
Lennox and the Regent and Cardinal Montgomery arrived in Scotland on the
3d day of July, 1545, and having exhibited his commission, and explained the
purposes of his master, the king of France, to the Scottish council, they were
induced to issue an order for an army of the better class, who might be able to
support the expenses of a campaign, to assemble on an early day. This ordei
was punctually complied with, and on the day appointed, fifteen thousand Scots-
men assembled at Haddington, who were marched directly to the English bor-
der, and encamped in the neighbourhood of Werk castle. From this camp, they
carried on their incursions into the neighbouring country for about a day's
journey, carrying off every thing that they could lay hold o£ Having wasted
in the course of ten days the country that lay within their reach, and being des-
titute of artillery for carrying on sieges, the army disbanded, and every man
went to his own home. Montgomery repaired to court, to inquire into the dis-
putes with Lennox ; the English, in the meantime, by way of reprisals, wasting
the Scottish borders in every quarter. Montgomery, in the beginning of winter,
returned home, leaving the Cardinal, though he blamed him as the sole author
of the dissentions between Lennox and the Regent, in the full possession of all
his authority.
Beaton now supposed himself fully established in the civil as well as the ec-
clesiastic management of the kingdom, and proceeded on a progress through
the different provinces for the purpose of quieting the seditions, which, as he
alleged, had arisen in various places, but in reality to repress the protectants,
who, notwithstanding his having so artfully identified the cause of the catholic
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
178 CARDINAL BEATON.
religion with that of national feeling, had still been rapidly increasing. Carry-
ing his puppet Arran along with him, as also the Earl of Argyle, Lord Justice-
General, Lord Borthwick, the Bishops of Orkney and Dunblane, &c he came
to Perth, or, as it was then more commonly called, St Johnston, vthere several
persons were summoned before him for disputing upon the sense of the Scriptures,
which, among all true catholics, was a crime to be punished by the judge. Four
unhappy men, accused of having eaten a goose upon a Friday, were condemned
to be hanged, which rigorous sentence was put into execution. A woman,
Helen Stark, for having refused to coll upon the Virgin for assistance in her
labour, was drowned, although again pregnant A number of the burgesses of
the city, convicted or suspected (for in those days they were the same thing) of
smaller peccadilloes, were banished from the city. He also deposed the Lord
Ruthven from the provostry of the city, for being somewhat attached to the new
opinions, and bestowed the office upon the Laird of Kinfauns, a relation to the
Lord Gray, who was neither supposed to be averse to the new religion, nor
friendly to the Cardinal ; but he hoped by this arrangement to lay a founda-
tion for a quarrel between these noblemen, by which at least one of them would
be cut off. This act of tyranny, by which the citizens were deprived of their
privilege of choosing their own governor, was highly resented by them, as well
as by the Lord Ruthven, whose family had held the place so long that they al-
most considered it to be hereditary in their family. The new provost Kinfauns
was urged by the Cardinal and his advisers to seize upon tlie government of the
city by force, but the Lord Ruthven, with the assistance of the citisens, put him
to the route, and slew sixty of his followers* That Ruthven was victorious must
have been a little mortifying to the Cardinal ; but as the victims were enemies
of the church, the defeat was the less to be lamented.
From St Johnston the Cardinal proceeded to Dundee, in order to bring to punish-
ment the readers of the New Testament, which about this time began to be taught to
them in the original Greek, of which the Scottish priesthood knew so little that they
held it forth as a new book written in a new language, invented by Martin Luther,
and of such pernicious qualities that, whoever had the misfortune to look into it be-
came infallibly tainted with deadly heresy. Here, however, their proceedings
were interrupted by the approach of Lord Patrick Gray and the Earl of Rothes.
These noblemen being both friendly to the Reformation, the Cardinal durst not
admit them with their followers into a town that was notorious for attachment to
that cause above all the cities of the kingdom ; he therefore sent the Regent back
to Perth, whither he himself also accompanied him. Even in Perth, however,
he durst not meet them openly, and the Regent requiring them, to enter sepa-
rately, they complied, and were both committed to prison. Rothes was soon
dismissed, but Gray, whom the Cardinal was chiefly afraid of, remained in con-
finement a considerable time. The Cardinal having gone over as much of
Angus as he found convenient at the time, returned to St Andrews, carrying
along with him a black friar named John Rogers, who had been preaching the
reformed doctrine in Angus. This individual be committed to the sea-tower of
St Andrews, where, it is alleged, he caused him to be privately murdered and
thrown over the wall, giving out that he liad attempted to escape over it, and
in the attempt fell and broke his neck. He also brought along with him the
Regent Arran, of whom, though he held his son as a hostage, he was not with-
out doubts, especially when he reflected upon the inconstancy of his character,
the native fierceness of the nobility, and the number of them that were still un-
friendly to his own measures, He therefore entertained him, for twenty days
together, with all manner of shows and splendid entertainments, made him
many presents, and, promising him many more, set out with him to Edinburgh,
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
CARDINAL BEATON. 179
where he convened an assembly of the clergy to devise means for putting a stop
to the disorders that were so heavily complained of, and which threatened the
total ruin of the church. In this meeting it was proposed to alky the public
clamours by taking measures for reforming the open profligacy of the priests,
which was the chief source of complaint Their deliberations, however, were
cut short by intelligence that George Wishart, the most eminent preacher of the
reformed doctrines of his day, was residing with Cockburn of Ormiston, only about
seven miles from Edinburgh. They calculated that, if they could cut off this
individual, they should perform an action more serviceable to the cause of the
ciiurch, and also one of much easier accomplishment, than reforming the lives
of the priests. A troop of horse were immediately sent off to secure him ; but
Cockburn, refusing to deliver him, the Cardinal himself and the Regent fol-
lowed, blocking up every avenue to the house, so as to render the escape of the
reformer impossible. To prevent the effusion of blood, however, tbe Earl of
Bothwell was sent for, who pledged his faith to Cockburn, that he would stand
by Wishart, and that no harm should befall him ; upon which he was peaceably
surrendered. Bothwell, however, wrought upon by the Cardinal, and especially
by the Queen-mother, with whom, Knox observes, " he was then in the glan-
ders,*' after some shuffling to save appearances, delivered his prisoner up to the
Cardinal, who imprisoned him, first in the Castle of Edinburgh, and soon after
carried him to St Andrews, where he was brought before the ecclesiastical tri-
bunal, condemned for heresy, and most cruelly put to death, as the reader will
find related in another part of this work, under the article Wishart. Wishart
was a man mighty in the Scriptures, and few even of the martyrs have displayed
mare of the meekness and humility that ought to characterize the follower of
Jesus Christ ; but his knowledge of the Scriptures availed him nothing, and the
meek graces of his character, like oil thrown upon flame, only heightened the
rage and inflamed the fury of his persecutors. Arran, pressed by his friends,
and perhaps by his own conscience, wrote to the Cardinal to stay the proceed-
ings till he should have time to inquire into the matter, and threatened him with
the guilt of innocent blood. But the warning was in vain, and the innocent
victim was only the more rapidly hurried to his end for fear of a rescue.
This act of tyranny and murder was extolled by the clergy and their dependants
as highly glorifying to God and honourable to the actor, who was now regasded
by them as one of the prime pillars of heaven, under whose auspices the most
glorious days might be expected. The people in general felt far otherwise,
and, irritated rather than terrified, regarded the Cardinal as a monster of cruel-
ty and lust, whom it would be a meritorious action to destroy. Beaton was not
ignorant of the hatred and contempt in which he was held, nor of the devices
that were forming against him ; but he supposed his power to be now so firmly
established as to be btyoiie* the reach of faction, and be was determined by the
most prompt and decisive measures to be before-hand with his enemies. In the
mean time, he thought it prudent to strengthen his interest, which was already
great, by giving his daughter in marriage to the Master of Crawford. For this
purpose he proceeded to Angus, where tbe marriage was celebrated with almost
royal splendour, the bride receiving from her father the Cardinal, no less than
four thousand marks of dowry. From these festivities he was suddenly recalled
by intelligence that Henry of England was collecting a great naval force, with
which he intended to annoy Scotland, and especially the coast of Fife. To
provide against such an exigency, the Cardinal summoned the nobility to attend
aim in a tour round the coast, where he ordered fortifications to be made, and
garrisons placed in the most advantageous positions, In this tour he was at-
tended by the Master of Rothes, Norman Leslie, who had formerly been one of
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
180 CARDINAL BEATON. |
his friend*, but had of late, from some prirate grudge, become cold towards
him. Some altercation of course ensued, and they parted in mortal enmity ;
the Cardinal determined secretly to take off, or to imprison Norman, with his
friends the Lairds of Grange, elder and younger, Sir James Learmont, provost
I of St Andrews, and the Laird of Raith, all whom he feared, and Norman re*
«ilred to slay the Cardinal, be the consequences what they would.
The Cardinal was in the meantime in great haste to repair and strengthen his
castle, upon which a large number of men were employed almost night and day.
The conspirators haying lodged themselves secretly in St Andrews on the night < f
May the twenty-eighth, 1 546, were, ere the dawn of the next morning, assembled to
the number of ten or twelve persons in the neighbourhood of the castle, and the
gates being opened to let in the workmen with their building materials, Kircaldy
of Grange entered, and with him six persons, who held a parley with the porter.
Norman Leslie and his company having then entered, passed to the middle of
the court Lastly came John Leslie and four men with him, at whose appear-
ance the porter, suspecting some design, attempted to lift the drawbridge, but
was prevented by Leslie, who leaped upon it, seized the keys, and threw the
janitor himself headlong into the ditch. The place thus secured, the workmen,
to the number of a hundred, ran off the walls, and were put forth at the wicket
gate unhurt Kircaldy then took charge of the privy postern, the others going
through the different chambers, from which they ejected upwards of fifty persons,
who were quietly permitted to escape. The Cardinal, roused from his morning
slumbers by the noise, threw up his window and asked what it meant Being
answered that Norman Leslie had taken his castle, he ran to the postern, but,
finding it secured, returned to his chamber, drew his two-handed sword, and
ordered his chamberlain to barricade the door. In the meantime, John Leslie
demanded admittance, but did not gain it till a cbimneyful of burning coals
was brought to burn the door, when the Cardinal or his chamberlain (it is not
known which) threw it open. Beaton, who had in the mean time hidden a box
of gold under some coals in a corner of the room, now sat down in a chair, cry.
ing, " I am a priest, I am a priest; you will not slay me." But he was now in
the hands of men to whom his priestly character was no recommendation. John
I/eslie, according to his vow, struck him twice with his dagger, and so did Peter
Carmichael ; but James Melville, perceiving them to be in a passion, withdrew
them, saying, " This work and judgment of God, although it be secret, ought to
be gone about with gravity." Then admonishing the Cardinal of his wicked
life, particularly his shedding the blood of that eminent preacher, Mr George
Wishart, Melville struck him thrice through with a stag sword, and he fell,
exclaiming, " Fie, fie, 1 am a priest, all's gone ! " Before this time the inhabitants
of St Andrews were apprized of what was going on, and began to throng around
the castle, exclaiming, " Have ye slain my Lord Cardinal? What have ye done
with my Lord Cardinal ?" As they refused to depart till they saw him, his dead
body was slung out by the assassins at the same window from which he had but
a short time before witnessed the burning of Mr George Wishart Having no
opportunity to bury the body, they afterwards salted it, wrapped it in lead, and
consigned it to the ground floor of the sea tower, the very place where he was
said to have caused Rogers the preaching friar to be murdered.
In this manner fell Cardinal David Beaton, in the height of prosperity, and
in the prime of life, for he had only reached the fifty-second year of his age.
His death was deeply lamented by his own party, to whom it proved an irrepa-
rable loss, and the authors of it were regarded by them as sacrilegious assassins,
but by numbers, who, on account of difference in religion, were in dread of
Iheir lives from his cruelty, and by others who were disgusted by his insufferable
Digitized by VjOOQ l,€
CARDINAL BEATON. 181
arrogance, they were regarded as the restorers of their country's liberties, and
many did not hesitate to hazard their lives and fortunes along with them. What*
ever opinion may be formed regarding the manner of his death, there can be
only one regarding its effects ; the Protestant faith, which had quailed before
bis persecuting arm, from this moment began to prosper in the land. It is probable,
as his enemies alone have been his historians, that the traits of bis character, and
even the tone and bearing of many of his actions, have been to some degree exag-
gerated ; yet there seems abundant proof of bis sensuality, his cruelty, and bis total
disregard of principle in bis exertions for the preservation of tbe Romish faith.
Nothing, on tbe other hand, but that barbarism of the times, which characterizes all
Beaton's policy, as well as bis actions, could extenuate the foul deed by which he
was removed from the world, or the unseemly sympathy which the reforming party
in general manifested towards its perpetrators. As a favourable view of his charac-
ter, and at the same time a fine specimen of old English composition, we extract the
following from the supplement to Dempster : —
"It frequently happens that the same great qualities of mind which enable a
man to distinguish himself by the splendour of his virtues, are so overstrained
or corrupted as to render him no less notorious for his vices. Of this we have
many instances in ancient writers, but none by which it is more clearly displayed
than in the character of the Cardinal Archbishop of St Andrews, David Beaton,
who, from his very childhood, was extremely remarkable, and whose violent death
had this in it singular, that his enemies knew no way to remove him from his
absolute authority but that [of assassination]. When he was but ten years of
age, he spoke with so much ease and gravity, with so much good sense, and
freedom from affectation, as surprised all who heard him. When he was little
more than twenty, he became known to the Duke of Albany, and to the court
of France, where he transacted affairs of the greatest importance, at an age
when others begin to become acquainted with them only in books. Before he
was thirty, he had merited the confidence of the Regent, the attention of the
French King, and the favour of his master, so that they were all suitors to the
court of Rome in his behal£ He was soon after made Lord Privy-Seal, and
appointed by act of parliament to attend the young king, at his majesty's own
desire. Before he attained the forty-fifth year of his age, he was Bishop of
Mirepoix in France, Cardinal of the Roman Church, Archbishop of St Andrews,
and Primate of Scotland, to which high dignities he added, before he was fifty,
those of Lord High Chancellor, and legate d latere. His behaviour was so
taking, that he never addicted himself to the service of any prince or person,
but he absolutely obtained their confidence, and this power he had over the
minds of others, he managed with so much discretion, that his interest never
weakened or decayed. He was the favourite of the Regent, Duke of Albany,
and of his pupil James V. as long as they lived ; and the French king and the
governor of Scotland equally regretted his loss. He was indefatigable in busi-
ness, and yet managed it with great ease. He understood the interests of the
courts of Rome, France, and Scotland, better than any man of his time, and he
was perfectly acquainted with the temper, influence, and weight of all the nobi-
lity in his own country. In time of danger, he showed great prudence and
steadiness of mind, and in his highest prosperity, discovered nothing of vanity
or giddiness. He was a zealous churchman, and thought severity the only wea-
pon that could combat heresy. He loved to live magnificently, though not pro-
fusely, for at the time of his death he was rich, and yet had provided plentifully
for his family. But his vices were many, and his vices scandalous. He quar-
relled with the old Archbishop of Glasgow in his own city, and pushed this
ouarrel so far that their men fought in the very church. His ambition was
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
182
JAMES BEATON.
boundless, for he took into his hands the entire management of the afiamof the
kingdom, civil and ecclesiastical, and treated the English ambassador as if he
had been a sovereign prince. He made no scruple of sowing discord among his
enemies, that he might reap security from their disputes. His jealousy of the
governor [Arran] was such, that he kept his eldest son as a hostage in his house,
under pretence of taking care of his education. In point of chastity he was
very deficient; for, though we should set aside as calumnies many of those things
which his enemies have reported of his intrigues, yet the posterity he left be-
hind him plainly proves that he violated those vows to gratify his passions,
which he obliged others to hold sacred on the penalty of their lives. In a word,
bad his probity been equal to bis parts* had his virtues come up to his abilities, bis
end had been less fatal, and his memory without blemish. As it is, we ought to
consider him as an eminent instance of the frailty of the brightest human facul-
ties, and the instability of what the world calls fortune."
He wrote, according to Dempster, " Memoirs of his own Embassies," " A Trea-
tise of Peter's Primacy," and " Letters to several Persons."
BEATON, Jambs, uncle to the preceding, and himself an eminent prelate and
statesman, was a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour, in Fife, and of Mary
Boswell, daughter of the Laird of Balmouto. Having been educated for the
church, he became, in 1503, provost of the collegiate church of Bothwell, by
the favour, it has been almost necessarily supposed, of the bouse of Douglas, who
were patrons of the establishment. His promotion was very rapid. In 1504,
he was made Abbot of the rich and important abbacy of Dunfermline, which
had previously been held by a brother of the king; and in 1 505, oh the death
of his uncle, Sir David Beaton, who had hitherto been his chief patron, he re-
ceived his office of High Treasurer, and became, of course, one of the principal
ministers of state. On the death of Vaus, Bishop of Galloway, in 1508, James
Beaton was placed in that see. and next year he was translated to the archi.
episcopate of Glasgow. He now resigned the Treasurer's staff, in order that he
might devote himself entirely to his duties as a churclunan. While Archbishop
of Glasgow, he busied himself in what were then considered the most pious and
virtuous of offices, namely, founding new altarages in tlie cathedral, and im-
proving the accommodations of the episcopal palace. He also entitled himself
to more lasting and rational praise, by such public acts as the building and re-
pairing of bridges within the regality of Glasgow. Upon all the buildings,
both sacred and profane, erected by him, were carefully blazoned his armorial
bearings. During all the earlier part of his career, this great prelate seems to
have lived on the best terms with the family of Douglas, to which he must have
been indebted for his first preferment In 1 5 1 5, when it became his duty to con-
secrate the celebrated Gavin Douglas as Bishop of Dunkeld, he testified his respect
for the family by entertaining tlie poet and all his train in die most magnificent
manner at Glasgow, and defraying the whole expenses of his consecration.
Archbishop Beaton was destined to figure very prominently in the distracted
period which ensued upon the death of James IV. As too often happens in the
political scene, the violence of faction broke up his old attachment to tlie
Douglasses. The Earl of Angus, chief of that house, having married tlie widow
of the king, endeavoured, against the general sense of the nation, to obtain the
supreme power. Beaton, who was elevated by the Regent Albany, to the high
office of Lord Chancellor, and appointed one of tlie governors of the kingdom
during his absence in France, attached himself to the opposite faction of the
Hamiltons under the Earl of Arran. On the 39th of April, 1 520, a convention
having been called to compose the differences of the two parties, the Hamiltons
appeared in military guise, and seemed prepared to vindicate their supremacy
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BEATON.
183
with the sword. Beaton, their chief counsellor, sat in his house at the bottom
of the Blackfriars* Wynd, 1 with armour under his robes, ready apparently to
have joined the forces of the Hamiltons, in the event of a quarrel. In this crisis,
Gavin Douglas was deputed by his nephew the Earl of Angus, to remonstrate
with the Archbishop against the hostile preparations of his party. Beaton en-
deavoured to gloss over the matter, and concluded with a solemn asseveration
upon, his conscience, that he knew not of it As he spoke, he struck his hand
upon his breast, and caused the mail to rattle under his gown. Douglas replied,
with a cutting equivoque, " Methinks, my lord, your conscience clatters,'*— as
much as to say, your conscience is unsound, at the same time that the word
might mean the undue disclosure of a secret In the ensuing conflict, which
took place upon the streets, the Hamiltons were worsted, and Archbishop Beaton
had to take refuge in the Blackfriars* Church. Being found thereby the
Douglasses, he had his rochet torn from his back, and would have been slain cm
the spot, but for the interposition of the Bishop of Dunkeld. Having with
some difficulty escaped, he lived for some time in an obscure way, till the return
of the Duke of Albany, by whose interest he was appointed in 1533, to the
metropolitan see of St Andrews. On the revival of- the power of the Douglasses
in the same year, he was again obliged to retire. It is said that the insurrec-
tion of the Earl of Lennox in 15*25, which ended in the triumph of the Doug-
lasses and the death of the Earl at Linlithgow Bridge, was stirred up by Arch-
bishop Beaton, as a means of emancipating the King. After this unhappy
•vent, the Douglasses persecuted him with such keenness, that, to save his lite,
he assumed the literal guise and garb of a shepherd, and tended an actual flock
upon Bogrian-Knowe in Fife. At length, when James V. asserted his indepen-
dence of these powerful tutors, and banished them from the kingdom, Beaton
was reinstated in all his dignities, except that of Chancellor, which was con-
ferred upon Gavin Dunbar, the King's preceptor. He henceforward resided
chiefly at St Andrews, where, in 1527, he was induced by the persuasions of
other churchmen less mild than himself, to consent to the prosecution and death
of Patrick Hamilton, the proto-martyr of the Scottish Reformation. He was
subsequently led on to various severities against the reformers, but rather through
a want of power to resist the clamours of his brethren, than any disposition to
severity in his own nature. It would appear that he latterly entrusted much of
the administration of his affairs to his less amiable nephew. The chief employ-
ment of his latter years was to found and endow the New College of St Andrews,
in which design, however, he was thwarted in a great measure by his executors,
who misapplied the greater part of his funds. He died in 1539.
BEATON, Jambs, Archbishop of Glasgow, was the second of the seven sons of
John Beaton, or Bethune of Balfour, elder brother of Cardinal Beaton. He
received the chief part of his education at Paris, under the care of his celebrated
uncle, who was then residing in the French capital as ambassador from James
Y. His first preferment in the church was to be chanter of the cathedral of
Glasgow, under Archbishop Dunbar. WheL his uncle attained to nearly supreme
power, he was employed by him in many important matters, and in 15-43, suc-
ceeded him as Abbot of Aberbrothick. The death of the Cardinal does not
appear to have materially retarded the advancement of his nephew ; for we find
that, in 1 552, he had sufficient interest with the existing government to receive
(he second place in the Scottish church, the Archbishopric of Glasgow, to
which he was consecrated at Borne. He was now one of the most important
personages in the kingdom; he enjoyed the conTdenoe of the governor, the
Earl of Arran ; his niece, Mary Beaton, one of the " Four Maries," was the
1 Laiie.
Digitized by
Google
184 JAMES BEATON.
favourite of the young Queen Mary, now redding in France ; and he was ako
esteemed very highly by the Queen Dowager, Mary of Lorrain, who was now
aspiring to the Regency. During the subsequent sway of the Queen Regent,
the Archbishop of St Andrews enjoyed her highest confidence. It was to him
that she handed the celebrated letter addressed to her by John Knox, saying
with a careless air, "Please you, my lord, to read a pasquiL" In 1557, when
the marriage of the youthful Mary to the Dauphin of France was about to take
place, James Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, stood the first of the parliamen-
tary commissioners appointed to be present at the ceremony, and to conduct the
difficult business which was to precede it Me and his companions executed
this duty in a most satisfactory manner. After his return in 1558, he acted as
a Privy Councillor to the Queen Regent, till she was unable any longer to con-
tend with the advancing tide of the Reformation. In November, 1559, his
former friend, the Earl of Arran, who had now become a leading reformer,
came with a powerful retinue to Glasgow, and, to use a delicate phrase of the
time, "took order" with the Cathedral, which he cleared of all the images,
placing a garrison at the same time in the Archbishop's palace. Beaton soon after
recovered his house by means of a few French soldiers ; but he speedily found that
neither he nor his religion could maintain a permanent footing in the country.
In June, 1560, the Queen Regent expired, almost at the very moment
when her authority became extinct. Her French troops, in terms of a
treaty with the Reformers, sailed next month for their native country, and in
the same ships was the Archbishop of Glasgow, along with all the plate and
records of the cathedral, which he said he would never return till the Catholic
faith should again be triumphant in Scotland. Some of these articles were of
great value. Among the plate, which was very extensive and rich, was a golden
image of Christ, with silver images of his twelve apostles. Among the records,
which were also very valuable, were two chartularies, one of which had been
written in the reign of Robert HI., and was called, " The Red Book of Glas-
gow." All these objects were deposited by the Archbishop in the Scots College
at Paris, where the manuscripts continued to be of use to Scottish antiquaries up
to the period of the French Revolution, when, it is believed, they were destroyed
or dispersed. Beaton was received by Queen Mary at Paris, with the distinc-
tion due to a virtuous and able counsellor of her late mother. On her depar-
ture next year, to assume the reins of government in Scotland, she left him in
charge of her affairs in France. He spent the whole of the subsequent part of
his life as ambassador from the Scottish court to his most Christian Majesty.
This duty was one of extreme delicacy during the brief reign of Queen Mary,
when the relation of the two courts was of the most important character. Mary
addressed him frequently in her own hand, and a letter in which she details to hiin
the circumstances of her husband's death, is a well known historical document
It is not probable that Beaton's duty as an ambassador during the mi-
nority of James VL was any tiling but a titular honour ; but that prince, on
taking the government into his own hands, did not hesitate, notwithstanding the
difference of religion, to employ a statesman who had already done faithful ser-
vice to the two preceding generations. James also, in 1587, was able to restore
to him both his title and estates as Archbishop of Glasgow ; a proceeding quite
anomalous, when we consider that the presbyterian religion was now established
in Scotland. The Archbishop died, April 24, 16 03, in the eighty-sixth year of
his age, and a full jubilee of years from his consecration. He had been ambas-
sador to three generations of the Scottish royal family, and had seen in France
a succession of six kings, and transacted public affairs under five of them. He
also had the satisfaction of seeing his sovereign accede to the English throne.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JAMES BEA.TTJE. 185
James learned the intelligence of bis death while on his journey to London, and
immediately appointed the historian Spottiswoode to be his successor in the ca-
thedral chair of Glasgow. Archbishop Spottiswoode characterises him as " a
man honourably disposed, faithful to the Queen while she lived, and to the King
her son ; a lover of his country, and liberal, according to his means, to all his
countrymen." His reputation, indeed, is singularly pure, when it is considered
with what vigour he opposed the reformation. He appears to have been re-
garded by the opposite party as a conscientious, however mistaken man, and to
have been spared accordingly all those calumnies and sarcasms with which party
rage is apt to bespatter its opponents. Having enjoyed several livings in
France, besides the less certain revenues of Glasgow, he died in possession of a
fortune amounting to 80,000 livres, all of which he left to the Scots College,
for the benefit of poor scholars of Scotland ; a gift so munificent, that he was
afterwards considered as the second founder of the institution, the first having
been a bishop of Moray, in the year IS 35. Besides all this wealth, he left
an immense quantity of diplomatic papers, accumulated during the course of his
legation at Paris ; which, if they had been preserved to the present time, would
unquestionably have thrown a strong light upon the events of his time.
BEAT90N, Robert, LL.D. an ingenious and useful author, was a native of
Dysart, where he was born in 1 742. Being educated with a view to the military
profession, he obtained an ensigncy in 1756, at the commencement of the seven
yean' war. He serred next year in the expedition to the coast of France, and af-
terwards, as lieutenant, in the attack on Martinique, and the taking of Guadeloupe.
In 1766, he retired on half-pay, and did not again seek to enter into active
life till the breaking out of die American war. Having failed on this occasion
to obtain an appointment suitable to his former services, be resolved to apply
himself to another profession — that of literature — for which he had all along
had considerable taste. His publications were, 1, " A Political Index to the
Histories of Great Britain and Ireland," 1 voL 8vo. 1786, of which a third
edition in 3 volumes was published at a late period of his life. This work con-
sists chiefly of accurate and most useful lists of all the ministers and other prin-
cipal officers of the state, from the earliest time to the period of its publication.
8, " Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to the present
time," 3 vols. 8vo. 1790; 2nd edition, 6 vols. 180 4. 3, " View of the Me-
morable Action of the 37th of July, 1778," 8vo. 1791. 4, "Essay on the
Comparative Advantages of Vertical and Horizontal Windmills," 8vo. 1798.
5, " Chronological Register of both Houses of Parliament, from 1706 to 1807,"
3 vols. 8vo. 1807. Besides some communications to the board of agriculture.
of which he was an honorary member. This laborious author enjoyed in his
latter years the situation of barrack-master at Aberdeen, where, if we are not
mistaken, he received his degree of LLD. He died at Edinburgh, January 24,
1818.
BEATTIE, Jambs, poet and moral philosopher, was born on the 25th October,
1735, at Laurencekirk, then an obscure hamlet in Kincardineshire. His father,
James Beattie, was a small shop-keeper in the village, and at the same time
rented a little farm in the neighbourhood. His mother's name was Jean Wat-
son, and they had six children, of whom the subject of this article was the
youngest. The father was a man of information, and of character superior to
Ms condition, and the mother was also a person of abilities ; on the early death
of her husband, she carried on the business of his shop and farm, with the as-
sistance of her eldest son, and thus was able to rear her femily in a comfortable
manner.
Young Beattie, who, from his earliest years, was considered a child of pro*
I. 2 a
edb/GOOQlC
1«6 JAMES BEATTIE.
mise, received the rudiments of a classical education at the parish school, which
had been taught forty years before by Ruddiman, and was at this time a semi-
nary of considerable reputation. His avidity for books, which, in such a scene
might hare otherwise remained unsatisfied, was observed by the minister, who
kindly admitted him to the use of his library. Prom a copy of Ogilvy's Virgil,
obtained in this way, he derived his first notions of English versification. Even
at this early period, his turn for poetry began to manifest itself, and among his
school-fellows he went by the name of the Poet. In 1749, being fourteen years
of age, he commenced an academical course at Mareschal College, Aberdeen,
and was distinguished by Professor Blackwell as the best scholar in the Greek
class. Having entitled himself by this superiority to a bursary, he continued at
the college for three years more, studying philosophy under the distinguished
Gerard, and divinity under Dr Pollock. His original destination being for the
church, he read a discourse in die Hall, which met with much commendation,
but was at the same time remarked to be poetry in prose. Before the period
when he should have taken his trials before the presbytery, he relinquished all
thoughts of this profession, and settled as school-master of the parish of Fordoun,.
near his native village.
In this humble situation, Beattie spent the years between 1753 and 1758.
In the almost total want of society, he devoted himself alternately to useful study
and to poetical recreation. It was at this period of life his supreme delight to
saunter in the fields the livelong night, contemplating the sky, and marking the
approach of day. At a small distance from the place of his residence, a deep
and extensive glen, finely clothed with wood, runs up into the mountains.
Thither he frequently repaired ; and there several of his earliest pieces were
written. From that wild and romantic spot, he drew, as from the life, some of
the finest descriptions, and most beautiful pictures of nature, that occur in his.
poetical compositions. It is related that, on one occasion, having lain down
early in the morning on the bank of his favourite rivulet, adjoining to his
mother's house, he had fallen asleep ; on awaking, it was not without astonish-
ment that he found he had been walking in his sleep, and that he was then at
a considerable distance (about a mile and a half) from the place where he had
lain down. On his way back to that spot, he passed some labourers, and in-
quiring of them if they had seen him walking along, they told him that they
nad, with his head hanging down, as if looking for something he had lost Such
an incident, though by no means unexampled, shows to what a degree Beattie
was now the creature of impulse and imagination. He was, indeed, exactly the
fanciful being whom he 1ms described in " The MinstreL" Fortunately for
Beattie, Mr Garden, advocate, (afterwards Lord Gardenstone) who at that time
resided in the neighbourhood, found him one day sitting in one of his favourite
haunts, employed in writing with a pencil. On discovering that he was engaged
in the composition of poetry, Mr Garden became interested, and soon found oc-
casion to honour the young bard with his friendship and patronage. Beattie at
the same time became acquainted with Lord Monboddo, whose family seat was
within the parish.
In 1757, when a vacancy occurred in the place of usher to the grammar-
school of Aberdeen, Beattie applied for it, and stood an examination, without
success. On the place becoming again vacant next year, he had what he con-
sidered the good fortune to be elected. This step was of some importance to
him, as it brought him into contact with a circle of eminent literary and profes-
sional characters, who then adorned the colleges of Aberdeen, and to whom he
soon made himself favourably known.
In 1760, one of the chairs, in the *Marischal College became vacant by the
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BEATTIE.
187
death of Dr Duncan, professor of Natural Philosophy. Beattie, whose ambition
had never presumed to soar to such an object, happened to mention the circum-
stance in conversation , as one of the occurrences of the day, to his friend, Mr
Arbuthnot, merchant in Aberdeen ; l who surprised him with a proposal that he
should apply for the vacant situation. With a reluctant permission from Beattie,
he exerted his influence with the Earl of Enrol to apply, by means of Lord Mil-
ton, to the Duke of Argyll, who then dispensed the crown patronage of Scot-
land ; and to the astonishment of the subject of the application, he received the
appointment By an accommodation, however, with the nominee to another
vacant chair, he became professor of Moral, instead of Natural Philosophy ; an
arrangement suitable to the genius and qualifications of both the persons con-
cerned.
By this honourable appointment, Beattie found himself, through an extraor-
dinary dispensation of fortune, elevated in the course of two years from the
humble and obscure situation of a country parish school-master, to a place of
very high dignity in one of the principal seats of learning in the country, where
he could give full scope to his talents, and indulge, in the greatest extent, his
favourite propensity of communicating knowledge. His first business was to
prepare a course of lectures, which he began to deliver to his pupils during the
session of 1760-1, and which, during subsequent years, he greatly improved.
In the discharge of his duties, he was quite indefatigable ; not only delivering
the usual lectures, but taking care, by frequent recapitulations and public ex-
aminations, to impress upon the minds of his auditors the great and important
doctrines which he taught
So early as the year 1756, Dr Beattie had occasionally sent poetical contri-
butions to the Scots Magazine from his retirement at Fordoun. Some of these,
along with others, he now arranged in a small volume, which was published at
London, 1760, and dedicated to the Earl of Errol, his recent benefactor. His
" Original Poems and Translations," — such was the title of the volume — made
him favourably known to the public as a poet, and encouraged him to further
exertions in that branch of composition. He also studied verse-making as an
art, and in 1762, wrote his " Essay on Poetry," which was published in 1776,
along with the quarto edition of his " Essay on Truth." In 1763, he visited
London from curiosity, and in 1765, he published a poem of considerable length,
but unfortunate design, under the title of " The Judgment of Paris/' which
threatened to be as fatal to his poetical career, as its subject had been to the
Trojan state. In 1766, he publiehed an enlarged edition of his poems, con-
taining, among other compositions, " The Judgment of Paris ; " but this poem
he never afterwards reprinted. His object was to make the classical fable
subservient to the cause of virtue, by personifying wisdom, ambition, and plea-
sure, in the characters of three goddesses, an idea too metaphysical to be gene-
rally liked, and which could scarcely be compensated by the graces of even
Beattie's muse.
Gray, the author of the " Elegy in a Country Church-yard," visited Scotland
in the autumn of 1765, and lived for a short time at Glammis Castle with the
Earl of Strathmore. Beattie, whose poetical genius was strongly akin to that of
Gray, wrote to him, intreating the honour of an interview; and this was speedi-
ly accomplished, by an invitation for Dr Beattie to Glammis Castle, where the
two poets laid the foundation of a friendship that was only interrupted by the
death of Gray in 1771. In a letter to Sir William Forbes, Beattie thus speaks
of the distinguished author of the Elegy .
x Father to Sir William Arbuthnot, Bart, who was Lord Provost of Edinburgh at the
%irft of George IV. in 1882.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
188
JAMES BEATTIE.
" You would liave been much pleased with Mr Gray. Setting aside his merit
ai a poet, which, however t U greater in my opinion than any of hii contempo-
raries *Mii boast, in this or any other nation, 1 found him possessed of the most
exact taste t the soundest judgment, mid the most exlcnsire learning. He Is hap-
py in a singular facility of expression. His conversation abounds in original
rWi-valioiis, delivered with no appearance of sententious formality, and seeming
to arise spontaneously, without study or premeditation. I passed two very
agreeable days with him at (ibuninis, and found him as easy in his manners, and
as communicative and frank, as I could have wished/ 1
It is curious to find that, during this trip to Scotland, (iray thus e\ pressed
lumsclf to Dr (iregory of Kdinhurgh regarding the immortal poem to which his
name is so endearingly attached ; i£ he told me," says l>r Gregory, " with a good
deal of acrimony, it owed its popularity entirely to the subject, and that the
public would have received it as well if it hitd been written in prose-' 1 *
Beattie was at this period in a low state of health, being afflicted with a
kind ill' «if Mini ^, wliir.li defied all his efforts to banish it, and even threatened
to interrupt his professional duties. In a letter to the honourable Charles Hoyd,
hr other of the Earl of Krrol, he thus playfully alludes to this , as well as several
other personal peculiarities:
** I ll atter myself that I shall ere long he in the way of becoming a great
man. For have t not headaches like Hope ? vertigo like Swift F grey hairs like
Homer P 3 Do I not wear large shoes (for fear of corns) like Virgil? and some-
times com plain of sore eyes (though not of lippitudc) like Horace P Am 1 not,
at tins present writing, invested with a garment nut less ragged than that of
Socrates? Like Joseph the patriarch, I am a mighty dreamer of dreams; like
Nintrod the hunter, I am an eminent builder of castles (in the air). 1 procras-
tinate t^ke Julius Caesar ; and very lately in imitation of Don Quixote, 1 rode a
horse, lean, old, and I nay, like Kosinante. Sometimes, like Ticem, I write bad
verses; and sometimes bad prose like Virgil This last instance 1 hare on the
authority of Seneca. I am of small stature like Alexander the Hreat; somewhat
inclined to fn in ess like Dr A rbuth not and Aristotle; and I drink brandy and
water like Mr Hoyd. I might compare myself, in relation to many other infir-
mities, to many other great mm; hut if fortune is not influenced in my favour
by the particulars already enumerated, 1 shall despair of ever recommending
myself to her good graces."
Some time previous to September 17fiG, Beattie commenced a poem in the
Spenserian stanza ; a description of verse to which he was much attached, on
account of its harmony, and its admitting of so many fine pauses and diversified
terminations. The subject was suggested to him hy the dissertation on the old
n in si iv k which was prefixed to Dr Percy's " H cliques of Ancient, English
Poetry," then just published. In May, 17(57, he inform* his friend Bladdurk
a I Kdinlmrgh, that he wrote one hundred and fifty lines of tins poem some
months before, and had not since added a single stanza. His hero was not then
even born, though in the fair way of being so ; his parents being described and
married. He proposed to continue the poem at Ins leisure, with a description
of the character and profession of his ideal minstrel ; but he was wofully cast
t own by the scantiness of the poeticnl taste of the age.
On i he 'J Mli of June, 1707, Dr Beattie was married at Aberdeen, to Miss
Mary Dun, the only daughter of Dr James Dun, rector of the grammar-school of
that city. The heart of the pout had previously been engaged in honourable
ailed ion to a Miss Mary Lindsay, whom, so late as the year 1823, the writer of
» Forbes' Life of Beallie, 4to, vol- L p. 8&
■ Hair, like Byron's, " grey at thirty \*
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BEATTIE. 189
this memoir heard recite ft poem written by Beattie in her praise, the lines of
which commenced with the letters of her name in succession. The venerable
lady was the widow of a citizen of Montrose, and in extreme, though healthy
old age.
At this period, infidelity had become fashionable to a great extent in Scot*
land, in consequence of the eelat which attended the publication of Hume's me-
taphysical treatises. Attempts had been made by Dm Reid and Campbell, in
respective publications, to meet the arguments of the illustrious sceptic; but it
was justly remarked by the friends of religion, that the treatises of these two
individuals assumed too much of that deferential tone towards the majesty of
Mr Hume's intellect and reputation, which was to be complained of in society
at large, and no doubt was one of the causes why his sceptical notions had be-
come so fashionable. It occurred to Dr Beattie, and he was encouraged in the
idea by bis friends Dr Gregory, Sir William Forbes, and other zealous adherents
of Christianity, that a work treating Hume a little more roughly, and not only
answering him with argument, but assailing him and his followers with ridicule,
might meet the evil more extensively, and be more successful in bringing back
the public to a due sense of religion. Such was the origin of his " Essay on
Truth," which was finished for the press in autumn 1769.
It is curious that this essay, so powerful as a defence of religion, was only
brought into the world by means of a kind of pia front. The manuscript was
comuiitted to Sir William Forbes and Mr Arbufchnot, at Edinburgh, with an in.
junction to dispose of it to any bookseller who would pay a price for it, so as to
insure its having the personal interest of a tradesman in pushing it forward in
the world. Unfortunately, however, the publisher to whom these gentlemen ap-
plied, saw so little prospect of profit in a work on the unfashionable side of the
argument, that be positively refused to bring it forth unless at the risk of the
author; a mode to which it waa certain that Dr Beattie would never agree.
14 Thus," says Sir William Forbes, " there was some danger of a work being lost,
the publication of which, we nattered ourselves, would do much good in the
world.
44 In this dilemma it occurred to me, n continues Beattie's excellent biographer,
" that we might, without much artifice, bring the business to an easy conclusion
by our own interposition. We therefore resolved that we ourselves should be
the purchasers, at a sum with which we knew Dr Beattie would be well satisfied,
as the price of the first edition. But it was absolutely necessary that the business
should be glossed over as much as possible ; otherwise, we had reason to fear
mat he would not consent to our taking on us a risk which he himself had re-
fused to run.
" I therefore wrote him (nothing surely but the truth, although, I confess, not
the whole truth,) that the manuscript was sold for fifty guineas, which I remitted
to him by a bank-bill ; and I added that we had stipulated with the bookseller
who was to print the book, that we should be partners in the publication. On
such trivial causes do things of considerable moment often depend ; for had it
not been for this interference of ours in this somewhat ambiguous manner, per-
haps the ' Essay on Truth,' on which all Dr Beattie's future fortunes hinged,
might never have seen the light."
In the prosecution of his design, Dr Beattie has treated his subject in the
following manner : he first endeavours to trace the different kinds of evidence
and reasoning up to their first principles; with a view to ascertain the standard
of truth, and explain its intmutability* He shows, in the second place, that his
sentiment! on this head, how inconsistent soever with the genius of scepticism,
and with the principles and practice of sceptical writers, are yet perfectly con-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC ^_
190 JAMBS BEATTIE*
•intent with the genius of true philosophy, and with the practice and principles
of those whom all acknowledge to have been the most successful in the investi-
gation of truth ; -concluding with some inferences or rules, by which the most
important fallacies of the sceptical philosophers may be detected by every per.
son of common sense, even though he should not possess acuteness of metaphysi-
cal knowledge sufficient to qualify him for a logical confutation of them. In
the third place he answers some objections, and makes some remarks, by way
of estimate of scepticism and sceptical writers.
The Essay appeared in May 1770, and met with the most splendid success.
It immediately became a shield in the hands of the friends of religion, where-
with to intercept and turn aside the hitherto resistless shafts of the sceptics. A
modern metaphysician may perhaps find many flaws in the work ; but, at the
time of its publication, it was received as a complete and triumphant refutation
of all that had been advanced on the other side. Under favour of the eclat
which attended the publication, religion again raised its head, and for a time
infidelity was not nearly so fashionable as it had been.
After getting this arduous business off his mind, Beattie returned to his long
Spenserian poem, and, in 1771, appeared the first part of "The Minstrel,"
without his name. It was so highly successful, that he was encouraged to re-
publish this, along with a second part, in 1774; when his name appeared
in the title-page. " Of all his poetical works, ' the Minstrel ' is, beyond all
question, the best, whether we consider the plan or the execution. The language
is extremely elegant, the versification harmonious, it exhibits the richest poetic
imagery with a delightful flow of the most sublime, delicate, and pathetic senti-
ment It breathes the spirit of the purest virtue, the soundest philosophy, and
the most exquisite taste. In a word, it is at once highly conceived and ad-
mirably finished." 1 Lord Lyttleton thus expressed his approbation of the
poem ; one of the most warmly conceived compliments that was ever perhaps
paid by a poet to his fellow : " I read the Minstrel with as much rapture as
poetry, in her sweetest, noblest charms, ever raised in my mind. It seemed to
me, that my once most beloved minstrel, Thomson, was come down from heaven,
refined by the converse of purer spirits than those he lived with here, to let me
hear him sing again the beauties of nature and finest feelings of virtue, not with
human but with angelic strains !" It is to be regretted that Beattie never com-
pleted this poem. He originally designed that the hero should be employed in
the third canto in rousing his countrymen to arms for defence against a foreign
invasion, and that, overpowered and banished by this host, he should go forth
to other lands in his proper character of a wandering minstrel. It must al-
ways be recollected, in favour of this poem, that it was the first of any length,
in pure English, which had been published by a Scottish writer in his own
cousKry — so late has been the commencement of this department of our literature.
Beattie visited London a second time in 1771, and, as might be expected
from his increased reputation, entered more largely into literary society than
on the former occasion. Among those who honoured him with their notice, was
Dr Johnson, who had been one of the warmest admirers of the Essay on Truth.
In 1773, he paid another visit to the metropolis, along with his wife, and was
received into a still wider and more eminent circle than before. On this occa-
sion, the university of Oxford conferred upon him an honorary degree of Doctor
of Laws.
The chief object of this tour was to secure a provision which his friends had
led him to expect from the government, in consideration of his services in the
cause of religion. Many plans were proposed by his friends for obtaining this
* Forbes' Life of Beattie.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JAMES BEATTTE.
191
object A bishop is believed to have suggested to the king, that the author of
the Essay on Truth might be introduced to the English church, and advanced
according to his merits ; to which the king, however, is said to have slily replied,
that, as Scotland abounded most in infidels, it would be best for the general in-
terests of religion that he should be kept there, George III., who had read and
admired Beattie's book, and whose whole mind ran in favour of virtue and reli-
gion, suggested himself the more direct plan of granting him a pension of two
hundred pounds a year, which was accordingly carried into effect The king
also honoured Dr Beattie with his particular notice at a levee, and, further,
granted him the favour of an interview in his private apartments at Kew for up-
wards of an hour. The agreeable conversation and unassuming manners of Dr
Beattie appear to have not only made a most favourable impression upon the
king and queen — for her majesty also was present at this interview — but upon
every member of that lofty circle of society to which he was introduced.
Even after he had been thus provided for, several dignified clergymen of the
church of England continued to solicit him to take orders ; and one bishop went
so far as directly to tempt him with the offer of a rectorate worth five hundred
a-year. He had no disinclination to the office of a clergyman, and he decid-
edly preferred the government and worship of the English church to the
presbyterian system of his own country. But he could not be induced to take
such a reward for his efforts in behalf of religion, lest his enemies might say that
he had never contemplated any loftier principle than that of bettering his own
circumstances. Nearly about the same time, he further proved the total absence
of a mercenary tinge in his character, by refusing to be promoted to the chaii
of Moral Philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. His habits of life were
now, indeed, so completely associated with Aberdeen, and its society, that he
seems to have contemplated any change, however tempting, with a degree of pain.
About this time, some letters passed between him and Dr Priestley, on occasion
of an attack made by the latter on the Essay on Truth. In his correspondence
with this ingenious but petulant adversary, Dr Beattie shows a great deal of can-
dour and dignity. He had at first intended to reply, but this intention he ap-
pears afterwards to have dropped : " Dr Priestley," says he, " having declared
that he will answer whatever I may publish in my own vindication, and being a
man who loves bustle and book-making, he wishes above all things that I should
give him a pretext for continuing the dispute. To silence him by force of argu-
ment, is, I know, impossible."
In the year 1786, Beattie took a keen interest in favour of a scheme then
agitated, not for the first time, to unite the two colleges of Aberdeen. It was
found impossible to carry this project into effect, though it is certainly one 01
those obvious improvements which must sooner or later be accomplished. In the
same year, Dr Beattie projected a new edition of Addison's prose works, with a
biographical and critical preface to the extent of half a volume, in which he
meant to show the peculiar merits of the style of Addison, as well as to point out
historically the changes which the English language has undergone from time to
time, and the hazard to which it is exposed of being debased and corrupted by
modern innovations. He was reluctantly compelled by the state of his health to
retrench the better part of this scheme. The works of Addison were published
under his care, in 1790, by Messrs Creech and Sibbald, booksellers, Edinburgh,
but he could only give Tickell'sLife, together with some extracts from Dr Johnson's
" Remarks on Addison's Prose," adding a few notes of his own, to make up any
material deficiency in TickelTs narrative, and illustrating Johnson's critique by a
few occasional annotations. Though these additions to his original stock of ma-
terials, are very slight, the admirer of Addison is much gratified by some new
Digitized by
Google
192
JAMBS BEATTIE.
information which he was ignorant of before, and to which Dr Beattie has giren
degree of authenticity, by adhering, even in this instance, to his general prac-
tice of putting his name to every thing he wrote.
In 1787, Dr Beattie made application to the Mafischal college, while the
pioject of the onion was still pending, desiring that his eldest son, James Hay
Beattie, then in his twentieth year, should be recommended to the crown as hat
assistant and successor in the chair of Moral Philosophy. The letter in which
this application was made, sets forth the extraordinary qualifications of his son,
with a delightful mixture of delicacy and warmth. The young man was an ex*
cellent Greek and Latin scholar; wrote and talked beautifully in the latter Ian
guage, as well as in English, and, to use the language of his father, the best
of his genius lay entirely towards theology, classical learning, morals, poetry,
and criticism. The college received the application with much respect, and,
after a short delay on account of the business of the union, gave a cordial sane*
tion to the proposal *
Unfortunately for the peace of Dr Beattie's latter years, his son, while in the
possession of the highest intellectual qualifications, and characterised by every
virtue that could be expected from his years, was destined by die inherent infirm-
ity of his constitution for an early death. After his demise, which happened
on the 19th of November, 1790, when he had just turned two-and4wenty, Dr
Beattie published a small collection of his writings, along with an elaborate pre-
face, entering largely into the character and qualifications of the deceased. In
this, he was justified by the admiration which be heard everywhere expressed,
of the character and intellect of his son ; but, as posterity appears to have re-
duced the prodigy to its proper limits, which were nothing wonderful, it is
unnecessary to bring it further into notice. The following is the more unaffected
and touching account which the afflicted parent has given of his loss, in a letter
to the Duchess of Gordon ; a lady with whom, for many years, he cultivated the
warmest friendship, and whose society he largely enjoyed, along with his son,
during repeated visits to Gordon Castle :
" Knowing with what kindness and condescension your Grace takes an inter-
est in every thing that concerns me and my little family, 1 take the liberty to
inform you that my son James is dead ; that the last dudes are now paid ; and
that I am endeavouring to return, with the little ability that is left me, and with
entire submission to the will of Providence, to the ordinary business of life. I
have lost one who was always a pleasing companion ; but who, for the last &t^
or six years, was one of the most entertaining and instructive friends that ever
man was blest with : for his mind comprehended almost every science ; he was
a most attentive observer of life and manners : a master of classical learning ;
and he possessed an exuberance of wit and humour, a force of understanding,
and a correctness and delicacy of taste, beyond any other person of his age I
have ever known.
" He was taken ill on the nignt of the 30th of November, 1789 ; and from
that time his decline commenced. It was long what physicians calls a nervous
atrophy ; but towards the end of June, symptoms began to appear of the lungs
being affected. Goat's milk, and afterwards asses' milk, were procured for him
in abundance; and such exercise as he could bear he regularly took: these
means lengthened his days, no doubt, and alleviated his sufferings, which indeed
were very often severe ; but in spite of aH that could be dene, he grew weaker
and weaker, and died the 19th of November, 1790, without complaint or pain,
without even a groan or sigh ; retaining to his last moment the use of his rational
faculties : indeed, from first to last, not one delirious word escaped him. He
lived twenty-two years and thirteen days. Many weeks before it came, he sow
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JAMES BEATTIE. 193
death approaching ; and he met it with such composure and pious resignation,
as may no doubt be equalled, but cannot be surpassed.
" * * * My chief comfort arises from reflecting upon the par-
ticulars of his life ; which was one uninterrupted exercise of piety, benevolence,
filial affection, and indeed every virtue which it was in his power to practise,
I shall not, with respect to him, adopt a mode of speech which has become too
common, and call him my poor son, for I must believe that he is infinitely happy,
and will be so for ever."
Dr Beattie bore the loss of his son with an appearance of fortitude and re-
signation. Yet, although his grief was not loud, it was deep. He said, in a
subsequent letter, alluding to a monument which he had erected for his son :
" I often dream of the grave that is under it : I saw, with some satisfaction, on
a late occasion, that it is very deep, and capable of holding my coffin laid on
that which is already in it ;" words that speak more eloquently of the griet
which this event had fixed in the heart of the writer, than a volume could have
done. The following is a copy of the epitaph which he composed for his amia-
ble and accomplished child : —
JACOBO HAY BEATTIE. JACOB1, F.
Philos. in Acad. Marischal Professor!.
Adolescent!.
Ea. Modestia.
Ea. suavilati. morum.
Ea. benevolentia. erga. omnes.
Erga. Deum. pietate.
' Ut Human um. nihil, supra.
In. bonis. Uteris.
In. theologia. '
In. orani. Philosophic
Exercitissimo.
PoeUB. insuper.
Rebus, in. levioribus. faceto.
In. grandioribus. sublimi.
Qui. Placidam. Animara. efflavit.
xix. Novemb. mdccic.
Annos. habens. xxii. diesque. xiii.
Pater Mokrkns. H. M. P.
Another exemplification of the rooted sorrow which this event planted in the
mind of Beattie, occurs in a letter written during a visit in England, in the sub-
sequent summer. Speaking of the commemoration music, which was performed
in Westminster Abbey, u by the greatest band of musicians that ever were brought
together in this country," he tells that the state of his health could not permit
him to be present Then recollecting his son's accomplishment as a player on
the organ, he adds, " Perhaps this was no loss to me. Even the organ of Dur-
ham cathedral was too much for my feelings; for it brought too powerfully to
my remembrance another organ, much smaller indeed, but more interesting,
which I can never hear any more."
In 1790, Dr Beattie published the first volume of his " Elements of Moral
Science,'* the second volume of which did not make its appearance till 1793. He
had, in 1776, published a series of Essays on poetry and music, on laughable
and ludicrous composition, and on the utility of classical learning. In 1783,
had appeared " Dissertations, Moral and Critical,*' and, in 1786, a small tract
entitled, " The Evidences of the Christian Religion, briefly and plainly stated."
All of these minor productions originally formed part of the course of prelections
which he read from his chair in the university ; his aim in their publication be-
Digitized by
Google
194 JAMES BEATTIE.
ing " to inure young minds to habits of attentive observation; to guard them
against the influence of bad principles ; and to set before them such views of na-
ture, and such plain and practical truths, as might at once improve the heart and
the understanding, and amuse and elevate the fancy." His <( Elements of Moral
Science/' was a summary of the whole of that course of lectures, a little enlarged
in the doctrinal parts, with the addition of a few illustrative examples. In a
certain degree, this work may be considered as a text-book ; it is one, however,
so copious in its extent, so luminous in its arrangement and language, and so
excellent in the sentiments it everywhere inculcates, that if the profound meta-
physician and logician do not find in it that depth of science which they may ex-
pect to meet with in other works of greater erudition, the -candid enquirer after
truth may rest satisfied, that, if he ha* studied these *' Elements " with due often- j
lion, he will have laid a solid foundation, on which to build all the knowledge
of the subject necessary for the common purposes of life. Of such of the lectures |
as had already appeared in nn extended shape, under the name of " Essays," [
particularly those on the theory of language, and on memory and imagination,
Dr Heat tie has made this abridgment as brief as was consistent with any degree
or perspicuity ; while lie bestowed no less than seventy pages on his favourite
topic, the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and the subject of slavery connected
with it.
While delighting the world with the quick succession and variety of his produc-
tion*, I>r 1 Seattle was himself nearly all the while a prey to the severest private suf-
ferings. Mrs Beatlie had unfortunately inherited from her mother a tendency
to madness* Though this did not for a considerable time break out into open ;
insanity, yet in a few years after their marriage, it showed itself in caprices and
follies, which embittered every hour of her husbands life. Dr Ileal tie tried for
a long time to conceal her disorder from die world, and, if possible, as he has
been heard to say, from himself; but at last, from whim, caprice, and melan-
choly, it broke out into downright phreiizy, which rendered her seclusion from
society absolutely necessary. During every stage of her illness, be watched and
cherished her with the utmost tenderness and care; using every means at first
that medicine could furnish for her recovery, and afterwards, when her condition
was found to he perfectly hopelesss, procuring for her, in an asylum at iMus&el-
butgh, every accommodation and comfort that could tend to alleviate her suffer-
ings. "When I reflect," says Sir William Korbes, tl on the many sleepless
nights, and anxious days> which he experienced from Mrs 1 lent tie's malady, and
think Hi' i tic unwearied and unremitting attention he paid to her, during so great
a number of years in that sad situation, his character is exalted in my mind to a
degree which may be equalled, but I am sure never can be excelled t and makes
the fame of the poet and the philosopher fade from my remembrance."
The pressure of this calamity — slow but certain — the death of his eldest son,
and the continued decline of his health, made it necessary, in the session of
1 7!) 3-4, that he should be assisted in the duties of his clnss. From that period
till 1797, when he finally relinquished his professorial duties, he was aided bj
Mr George (rlennic, his relation and pupil. He experienced an additional ca-
lamity in 1796, by the sudden death of bis only remaining sou, Montague, a
youth of eighteen, less learned than his brother, but of still more amiable man
ners, and whom be bad designed for the English church. This latter event un-
hinged the mind of Bcnliie, who, it may be remarked, had always been greatly
dependent on the society, and even on the assistance, of his children. 1 he core tf
their education, in which he was supposed to be only over indulgent, had been his
chief employment for many years. This last event, by rendering hi in childless,
dissolved nearly the last remaining tie which bound him u> the world; and left
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JAMES BEATTIE. * 105
liim a miserable wreck upon the shores of life. Many days had not elapsed
after the death of Montague Beattie, ere he began to display symptoms of a de-
cayed intellect, in an almost total loss of memory respecting his son. He would
search through the whole house for him, and then say to his niece and house-
keeper, Mrs Glennie, " You may think it strange, but 1 must ask you, if I hare
a son, and where he is." This lady would feel herself under the painful necessity
of bringing to his recollection the death-bed Bufferings of his son, which always
restored him to reason. Aid he would then, with many tears, express his thank-
fulness that he had no child, saying, with allusion to the malady they might hare
derived from their mother, " How could I hare borne to see their elegant minds
mangled with madness ?*' When he looked for the last time on the dead body of
his son, and thought of the separation about to take place between himself and
the last being that connected him with this sublunary scene, he said, " Now,
I have done with the world !" After this, he never bent his mind again to study,
! never touched the violincello on which he used to be an excellent and a frequent
1 player, nor answered the letters of his friends, except, perhaps, a very few. He
commanded his mind, however, to compose the following epitaph on his son ; it
was the last effort of the Minstrel, and has ail his usual happiness in this peculiar
branch of composition :
MONTAGU. BEATTIE.
Jacob!. Hay. Beattie. Frater.
Ej usque, virtutum. eU studiorum.
iEmulus.
Sepulchrique. conson
Variant m. Peritus. Artium.
Pingendi. imprimis.
Nat us. Octavo. JuHi. mdcclxxviii.
Muhum. Defletus. obiit
Derimo. quarto. Martii. mdccxcv.
The phrase " sepulchrique consort " was literally true. That space in the
roomy grave of his eldest son, which he had calculated on as sufficient for him-
self, was devoted to receive this second and final hope of his old age.
In March 1797, Dr Beattie became completely crippled with rheumatism, and
in the beginning of 1799, he experienced a stroke of palsy, which for eight days
so affected his speech that he could not make himself understood, and even for-
got several of the most material words of every sentence. At different periods
alter this, he had several returns of the same afflicting malady ; the last, in Octo-
ber 1802, deprived him altogether of the power of motion. He lingered for ten
months in this humiliating situation, but was at length relieved from all his suf-
ferings by the more kindly stroke of death, August 1 8, 1 803. He expired without
the least appearance of suffering. His remains were deposited close to those of
bis two sons in the ancient cemetery of St Nicolas, and were marked soon after
by a monument, for which Dr James Gregory of Edinburgh, supplied an elegant
' inscription.
The eminent rank which Dr Beattie holds as a Christian moral philosopher is
a sufficient testimony of the public approbation of his larger literary efforts. It
may, however, be safely predicted, that his reputation will, after all, centre in
his " Minstrel/' which is certainly his most finished work, and, every thing con-
sidered, the most pleasing specimen of his intellect If we consider how much
original talent, and how much cultivated taste must have been necessary to the
composition of this beautiful poem, we will wonder that such should have been
found in a professor of a Scottish provincial university, at a time when scarcely
any vestige of the same qualifications was to be found out of London. " Beat-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
196 ANDREW BELL, D.D.
tie," lays Cowper — a kindled mind, well qualified to judge of his merits, u is die
most agreeable and amiable writer I have e?er met with ; the only author 1 have
I seen whose critical and philosophical researches are diversified and embellished
! by a poetical imagination, that makes eren the driest subject, and the leanest, a
feast for an epicure in books ; one so much at his ease, too, that his own charac-
ter appears in every page, and, which is very rare, not only the writer but the
i man ; and the man so gentle, so well tempered, so happy in his religion, and so
humane in his philosophy, that it is necessary to lore him, if one has any sense
of what is lovely."
The mind of Beattie is so exactly identified with his works, and is so undie-
I guisedly depicted in them, that when his works are described, so also is his char-
j acter. His whole life was spent in one continued series of virtuous duties. His
I piety was pure and fervent ; his affection for his friends enthusiastic ; his bene-
I vclence unwearying, and the whole course of his life irreproachable. The only
fault which his biographer, Sir William Forbes, could find in the whole com-
position of his character, was one of a contingent and temporary nature : he be-
came, towards the end of his life, a little irritable by continued application to
metaphysical controversy.
Although his connections in early life had been of the humblest sort, yet he
showed no awkwardness of behaviour in the most polished circles to which his
eminent literary reputation afterwards introduced him. On the other hand,
though, in the course of his frequent visits to England, he was caressed by the
very highest personages in the realm, he never was in the least degree spoilt,
but returned to his country with as humble and unassuming manners as he had
carried away from it To a very correct and refined taste in poetry, he added
the rare accomplishment of an acquaintance to a considerable extent with both
the sister arts of painting and music : his practice in drawing never went, in-
deed, beyond an occasional grotesque sketch of some friend, for the amusement
of a social hour. In music he was more deeply skilled, being not only able to
take part in private concerts on the violoncello, but capable of appreciating the
music of the very highest masters for every other instrument In his person, he
was of the middle height, though not elegantly, yet not awkwardly formed, but
with something of a slouch in his gait His eyes were black and piercing, with
an expression of sensibility somewhat bordering on melancholy, except when en-
gaged in cheerful conversation, and social intercourse with his friends, when they
were exceedingly animated. Such was " the MinstreL"
BELL, Asdriw, D.D., author of the " Madras System of Education," was born
at St Andrews, in 1753, and educated at the university of that place. The circum-
stances of his early life, and even the date of his entering into holy orders, are not
known ; but it is stated that he was remarkable in youth for the exemplary manner
in which he fulfilled every public and private duty. After having spent some time
in America, we find him, in 1786, officiating as one of the ministers of St Mary's, at
Madras, and one of the chaplains of Fort St George.
In that year, the Directors of the East India Company sent out orders to Madras,
that a seminary should be established there, for the education and maintenance of
the orphans and distressed male children of the European military. The proposed
institution was at first limited to the support of a hundred orphans : half the expense
was defrayed by the Company, and half by voluntary subscriptions ; and the Madras
Government appropriated Egmore Redoubt for the use of the establishment. The
superintendence of this ayslum was undertaken by Dr Bell, who, having no object
in view but the gratification of his benevolence, refused the salary of 1200 pagodas
(£480) which was attached to it " Here," he reasoned with himself, "is a field
for a clergyman, to animate his exertion, and encourage his diligence. Here his
Digitized by
Google
ANDREW BELL, D.D. 197
succeti is certain, and will be in proportion to the ability he shall discover, the
labour he shall bestow, and the means he shall employ. It is by instilling principles
of religion and morality into the minds of the young, that be can best accomplish
the ends of his ministry : it is by forming them to habits of diligence, industry,
veracity, and honesty, and by instructing them in useful knowledge, that he can
best promote their individual interest, and serve the state to which they belong,—
two purposes which cannot, in sound policy, or even in reality, exist apart."
With these feelings, and with this sense of duty, Dr Bell began his task. He had
to work upon the most unpromising materials, but the difficulties he had to encounter
led to that improvement in education with which his name is connected. Failing
to retain the services of properly qualified ushers, he resorted to the expedient of
conducting his school through the medium of the scholars themselves. It is in the
mode of conducting a school by means of mutual instruction, that the discovery of
Dr Bell consists ; and its value, as an abbreviation of the mechanical part of teaching,
and where large numbers were to be taught economically, could not be easily over-
estimated at the time, although later educationalists have improved upon the plan,
and the Madras system is now less in use than formerly. The first new practice
which Dr Bell introduced into bis school, was that of teaching the letters, by making
the pupils trace them in sand, as he had seen children do in a Malabar school. The
next improvement was the practice of syllabic reading. The child, after be had
learned to read and spell monosyllables, was not allowed to pronounce two syllables
till he acquired by long practice a perfect precision. From the commencement of his
experiment, he made the scholars, as far as possible, do everything for themselves :
they ruled their own paper, made their own pens, &c, with the direction only of their
teacher. The maxim of the school was, that no boy could do anything right the
first time, but he must learn when he first set about it, by means of his teacher, so
as to be able to do it himself ever afterwards. Every boy kept a register of the
amount of work which he performed, so that his diligence at different times might
be compared. There was also a black book, in which all offences were recorded :
this was examined once a- week; and Dr Bell's custom, in almost every case of ill-
behaviour, was to make the boys themselves judges of the offender. He never had
reason, he says, to think their decision impartial, biassed, or unjust, or to interfere
with their award, otherwise than to mitigate or remit the punishment, when he
thought the formality of the trial, and of the sentence, was sufficient to produce
the effect required. But the business of the teachers was to preclude punishment,
by preventing faults ; and so well was this object attained that for months together,
it was not found necessary to inflict a single punishment.
An annual saving of not less than £900, upon the education and support of two
hundred boys, was produced in the institution at Madras, by Dr Bell's regulations
and improvements. This, however, he justly regarded as an incidental advantage ;
his grand aim was to redeem the children from the stigma under which they laboured,
and the fatal effect which that stigma produced ; and to render them good subjects,
good men, and good Christians. After superintending the school for seven years,
he found it necessary for his health, to return to Europe. The directors of the
charity passed a resolution for providing him a passage in any ship which he might
wish to sail in, declaring, at the same time, that, under *' the wise and judicious
regulations which be had established, the institution had been brought to a degree
of perfection and promising utility, far exceeding what the most sanguine hopes could
have suggested at the time of its establishment ; and that he was entitled to their
fullest approbation, for his zealous and disinterested conduct." The language in
which Dr Bell spoke of the institution on leaving it, will not be read without
emotion, by those who are capable of appreciating what is truly excellent in human
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
IDS ANDREW BELI* D.D.
iiuune. During ieven year* which be had devoted to thii office, he had "seen the
vices incident to tbe former situation of these orphans gradually vanishing, their
mo; alb and conduct approaching nearer and nearer every year to what he wished
them to be, and the character of a race of children in a manner changed." *« This
numerous family/' said he, *■ I have long regarded as my own. These children are,
indeed, mine by a thousand ties 1 I have for them a parental affection, which has
grown upon me every year. Fur them I have made such sacrifices as parents have
not always occasion to make for their children ; and the nearer the period approaches
when 1 must separate myself from them, the more I feel the pang I shall suffer in
tearing- myself from this charge, and tbe anxious thoughts I shall throw back upon
these children* when 1 shall cease to be their protector, their guide, and their instruc-
tor/ 1 Eleven years after be had left India, Dr Bell received a letter, signed by
forty-four of these pupils, expressing, in the strongest terms, their gratitude for the
instruction and care which he hud bestowed upon them in childhood.
On his arrival in Europe! Dr Bell published, in 1797, a pamphlet, entitled " An
Experiment in Education, made at the Male Asylum of Madras ; suggesting a System
by which a School or Family may teach itself, under the superintendence of the
Master or Parent." The first place in England where the system was adopted, was
the charity school of St Hoto3ph*t i Aldgate. Dr Briggs, then of Kendal, tbe second
who profited by Dr Bell's discovery, introduced it into the Kendal schools of industry.
These occurrence* took place in 1 798. In 1801, the system was fully and successfully
acted upon in the schools of the Society for bettering tbe condition of the poor.
In 3S03 t Kir Joseph Lancaster first appeared before the public He published a
pamphlet with the folio wing tide — *• Improvements in Education, as it respects tbe
Industrious Classes of the Community ; containing a short Account of its Present
State, Hints towards its Improvement, and a detail of some Practical Experiments
conducive to that End.** M The institution/' be says, " which a benevolent Provi-
dence has been pleaded to make me the happy instrument of bringing into usefulness,
was begun in tbe year 1 TDS. The intention was to afford the children of mechanics,
&c, instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, at about half tbe usual price. Tbe
peculiarity of his plan seems to have consisted, chiefly, in introducing prizes and
nudges of merit, together with a mode of teaching spelling, which was said to
economize tiuie and trouble- : he also called in the assistance of boys, as monitors.
In his pamphlet of 1803, he freely accords to Bell the priority of the mutual system,
acknowledging also that the pubhbhed account of it had furnished him with several
uselui hints. Eventually, Mr Lancaster put forward a claim, obviously unfounded,
to be considered the sole iuveuiur of the system. One of his advertisements in the
newspapers was thus introduced ; — •« Joseph Lancaster, of the Free School, Borough
Rood, London, having invented, under the blessing of Divine Providence, a new
and mechanical system of education for the use of schools, feels anxious to disseminate
the knowledge of its advantages through tbe united kingdom. By this system, para-
doxical as it may appear, above luOO children may be taught and governed by one
master only." And on another occasion be writes : — " 1 stand forward before the
public, at the bar of mankind, to the present, and for tbe future ages, avowing
myself the inventor of the British or Royal Laucasterian System." (Morning Post,
4th September*) Again : " 1 submit the plan, briginal as it is, to tbe country. The
same tun not be found in any other work, unless copied or pirated." (Preface to
edition of 1308.)
But however unfounded Lancaster's claim to originality may be, there can be no
doubt that, through his exertions chiefly, the system was extensively reduced to practice
in England. Belonging to the sect of Quakers, a body whose exertions iu tbe cause
of philanthropy are universally known, he did not apply to them in vain for pecuniary
Digitized by
Google
BENJAMIN BELL. 190
support and personal exertion. Lancaster! an schools were rapidly established in all
parts of the kingdom.
Dr Bell lived long enough to witness the introduction of his system into 12,973
national schools, educating 900,000 of the children of his English countrymen, and
to know that it was employed extensively in almost every other civilized country.
He acquired in later life the dignity of a prebendary of Westminster, and was
master of Sherborn hospital, Durham. He was also a member of the Asiatic Society,
and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He employed himself during hit latter years
in writing several works on education, among which the most valuable were, "The
Elements of Tuition," M The English School," and a "Brief Manual of Mutual
Instruction and Discipline." The evening of his pious and useful life was spent at
Cheltenham, in the practice of every social and domestic virtue. Previously to his
death be bestowed £120,000, three per cent stock, for the purpose of founding an
academy on an extensive and liberal scale in his native city. He also bequeathed a
considerable sum for purposes of education in Edinburgh; which, however, to the
everlasting disgrace of the individuals intrusted with the public affairs of that city
at the time, was compromised among the general funds of that corporation, a few
months before its bankruptcy.
Dr Bell died on the 27th of January, 1832, in the eightieth year of his age, and was
buried in Westminster Abbey, the archbishop of Canterbury and tbe bishop of London
acting as chief mourners.
BELL, Binjamin, a distinguished surgical author, was bom in Dumfries in 1749.
He received an excellent classical education at the gramma r-echool of that town,
under Dr Chapman, the rector. The property of Blackett Home, m Dumfriesshire,
having devolved to him on tbe death of his grandfather, he gave a remarkable instance
of generosity by disposing of it, and applying the proceeds in educating himself and
the younger branches of the family, fourteen in number.
Mr Bell had early made choice of medicine as a profession, snri accordingly he was
bound apprentice to Mr Hill, surgeon in Dumfries, whose practice wai in that quarter
very extensive. It was a distinguishing feature in Mr Bell's character, that what-
ever be bad once engaged in was prosecuted with extreme ardour and assiduity.
He therefore went through the drudgery and fatigue necessarily connected with the
detail of a surgeon-apothecary's shop, with the greatest spirit. He f by degree*,
materially assisted his master, by attending his patients ; to whom bis correct beha-
viour, unfailing good humour, and agreeable manners recommended him in the most
powerful manner. He repaired to Edinburgh in 1766, entered himself as a member
of the university, and set himself, with the most serious application, to the prone*
cution of his medical studies. The Edinburgh medical school bad just sprung into
notice, and was beginning to make very rapid strides to its present eminence. The
first and second Monro bad already given evident tokens of the most distinguished
genius. Tbe first bad now relinquished, in favour of his equally skilful son, the
business of the anatomical theatre, and only occasionally delivered clinical lectures
in tbe infirmary. Mr Bell's ardour in the study of anatomy, in all its branches, was
unabated. - As he proposed to practise surgery, he was well aware that eminence in
that department of the profession could only be arrived at by persevering industry.
He was appointed house-surgeon to the royal infirmary, which afforded him every
opportunity of improvement. It was here that he laid tbe foundation of that superior
adroitness and dexterity which so peculiarly characterised him in the many haxardou*
but successful operations which he was called to perform.
Though Mr Bell was more particularly designed for the profession of n surgeon,
there was no department of medicine neglected by him. Dr Black, whose di»-
coveries formed a new era in tbe science of chemistry, bed been removed from
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
200 HENRY BELL.
Glasgow to Edinburgh during the year in which Mr Bell entered the university.
Ilia lectures and experiments proved generally attractive, and powerfully interested
the mind of Mr Bell. Dr Cullen was professor of the Institutes of Medicine, and
his original genius excited the greatest ardour amongst the students. The practice
of medicine was taught by Dr John Gregory, and Botany by Dr John Hope. These
were the professors whom Mr Bell attended, and it must be confessed, that they
were men of distinguished talents, whose lectures no diligent student could listen
to without deriving very great advantage.
Mr Bell had resolved, in 1770, to visit Paris and London, the two great schools
for surgical practice. Before doing so, however, he passed the examinations at
Surgeon's II all, and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons,
Edinburgh. In those great cities he remained nearly two years, assiduously im-
proving himself in surgery. Returning to his native country in 1772, he commenced
business in Edinburgh. Few came better prepared than be did for tbe practice of
surgery. His education was liberal and extensive. His appearance was much in
his favour. His address was good, his manner composed and sedate. Mr Bell had
early formed tbe plan of composing a system of surgery — and this he at last accom-
plished. He did not publish the whole work at once; but in the year 1778, about
six years after he had finally settled in Edinburgh, and become established in
practice, tbe first volume was given to the world. The remaining volumes appeared
from time to time until the work was completed in six volumes 8vo. in 1788. In
1793, appeared his "Treatise on Gonorrhoea," and in 1794, another "Treatise on
Hydrocele," which is understood to be the least popular of his works.
Mr Bell married, in 1776, Miss Hamilton, daughter of Dr Robert Hamilton, professor
of divinity in the University of Edinburgh, by whom he had a numerous family.
He died, April 4, 1806.
BELL, Henry, the first successful applier of steam to the purposes of navigation
in Europe, was born at Torphichen in Linlithgowshire, April 7, 1767. He was
sprung from a race of mechanics, being the fifth son of Patrick Bell and Margaret
Easton, whose ancestors, through several descents, were alike well-known in the
neighbourhood as ingenious mtll-wrights and builders ; some of them having also
distinguished themselves in the erection of public works, such as harbours, bridges,
Ac, not only in Scotland, but also in the other divisions of the United Kingdom.
Henry Bell, after receiving a plain education at the parish school, began, in 1780, to
learn the handicraft of a stone-mason. Three years after, he changed his views in
favour of the other craft of the family, and was apprenticed to his uncle, who
practised the art of a mill-wright. At the termination of his engagement, he went
to Borrowstounnes8, for the purpose of being instructed in ship-modelling, and, in
1787, he engaged with Mr James lnglis, engineer at Bell's Hill, with the view of
completing his knowledge of mechanics. He afterwards went to London, where he
was employed by the celebrated Mr Rennie ; so that his opportunities of acquiring
a practical acquaintance with the higher branches of his art, were altogether very
considerable.
About the year 1790, Bell returned to Scotland, and it is said that be practised
for several years, at Glasgow, the unambitious craft of a house-carpenter. He was
entered October 20, 1797, as a member of the corporation of wrigbts in that city.
It was his wish to become an undertaker of public works in Glasgow ; but either
from a deficiency of capital, or from want of steady application, he never succeeded
to any extent in that walk. " The truth is," as we have been informed, " Bell had
many of the features of tbe enthusiastic projector ; never calculated means to ends, or
looked much farther than the first stages or movements of any scheme. His mind was
a chaos of extraordinary projects, the most of which, from his want of accurate
gitized by
Google"
HENRY BELL.
201
scientific calculation, he never could carry into practice. Owing to an imperfection
in even his mechanical skill, he scarcely ever made one part of a model suit the rest,
so that many designs, after a great deal of pains and expense, were successively
abandoned. He was, in short, the hero of a thousand blunders and one success."
It may easily be conceived that a mechanician open to this description could not
succeed, to any great extent, as either a designer or executor of what are called public
works. The idea of propelling vessels by means of Bteam early took possession of
his mind. •• In 1800 (he writes) I applied to Lord Melville, on purpose to show
his lordship and the other members of the Admiralty, the practicability and great
utility of applying steam to the propelling of vessels against winds and tides, and
every obstruction on rivers and seas, where there was depth of water. After duly
thinking over the plan, the lords of that great establishment were of opinion that
the plan proposed would be of no value in promoting transmarine navigation." He
repeated the attempt in 1803, with the same result, notwithstanding the emphatic
declaration of the celebrated Lord Nelson, who, addressing their lordships on the
occasion, said, " My Lords, if you do not adopt Mr Bell's scheme, other nations will,
and in the end vex every vein of this empire. It will succeed (he added), and you
should encourage Mr Bell.*' Having obtained no support in this country, Bell
forwarded copies of the prospectus of his scheme to the different nations of Europe,
and to the United States of America. " The Americans/' he writes, " were the
first who put my plan into practice, and were quickly followed by other nations."
Mr Watt himself had no faith in the practicability of applying bis own great discovery
to the purpose of navigation. In a letter addressed to Mr Bell, he said, " How
many noblemen, gentlemen, and engineers, have puxzled their brains, and spent
their thousands of pounds, and none of all these, nor yourself, have been able to
bring the power of steam, in navigation, to a successful issue." The various attempts
which preceded that of Bell are briefly noticed in the following extract from the
" Fifth Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Steam-Boats,
June, 1822, Sir Henry Parnell, chairman/ 1 Mentioning the following as experimenters,
namely, Mr Jonathan Hulls, in 1736 ; the Duke of Bridgewater, on the Manchester
and Runcorn canal ; Mr Miller of Dalswinton ; the Marquis de Jouffroy (a French
nobleman), in 1781 ; Lord Stanhope, in 1705 ; and Mr Symington, and Mr Taylor,
on the Forth and Clyde canal, in 1801-2; the Report proceeds — " These ingenious
men made valuable experiments, and tested well the mighty power of steam. Still
no practical uses resulted from any of these attempts. It was not till the year 1807*
when the Americans began to use steam-boats on their rivers, that their safety and
utility was first proved. But the merit of constructing these boats is due to natives
of Great Britain. Mr Henry Bell of Glasgow gave the first model of them to the
late Mr Fulton of America, and corresponded regularly with Fulton on the subject*
Mr Bell continued to turn his talents to the improving of Bteam apparatus, and its
application to various manufactures about Glasgow; and in 1811, constructed
the Comet steam-boat, the first of the kind in Europe, to navigate the Clyde, from
Glasgow to Port-Glasgow, Greenock, Helensburgh, and Inverness." An interesting
recollection of Mr Miller's experiments on Dalswinton lake has been preserved
by Mr James Nasmyth, the eminent engineer, on the authority of his father, who
was present on the occasion. " The parties in the boat on that memorable occa-
sion," writes Mr Nasmyth to Mr D. O. Hill, the landscape painter, who has
introduced the lake into his picture of the Valley of the Nith, •• were Miller (of
Dalswinton), Taylor (the engineer), Robert Burns (the poet), Henry Brougham
(the future Lord Chancellor), and Alexander Nasmyth (the father of landscape
painting in Scotland); a fit and worthy crew to celebrate so great an event. Many a
i. 2 C
Digitized by
Google
202 HENRY BELL.
time (adds the writer) I have heard my father describe the delight which this first
and successful essay at steam-navigation yielded the party in question. I only wish
Burns had immortalized it in rhyme, for indeed it was a subject worthy of his
muse."
In 1808, Bell removed to the modern village of Helensburgh, on the Firth of
Clyde, where his wife undertook the superintendence of the public baths, and at the
same time kept the principal inn, whilst be continued to prosecute bis favourite
scheme, without much regard to the ordinary affairs of the world, In 1818 he pro-
duced his steam-boat, the Comet, of SO tons burthen, with an engine of three horse-
power. The Comet, so called from the celebrated comet which appeared at that time,
was built by Messrs John Wood and Co., at Port-Glasgow, and made her trial trip
on the 18th of January, when she sailed from Glasgow to Greenock, making five
miles an hour against a bead-wind. In August of the same year we find Bell
advertising the Comet to ply upon the Clyde three times a- week from Glasgow,
" to sail by the power of air, wind, and steam." In September the voyage was
extended to Oban and Fort- William, and was to be accomplished to and from the
latter place in four days. Mr Bell lived to see his invention universally adopted.
The Clyde, which first enjoyed the advantages of steam-navigation, became the
principal seat of this description of ship-building ; and, at the present time, Clyde-
built steamers maintain their superiority in every port in the world. Steam-shipa
are now launched from the building-yards of Glasgow and Greenock of 2000 tonnage
and 800 horse-power ; and Clyde-built ships, with Glasgow engines, make the
voyage betwixt Liverpool and New York in ten days. Steam-boat building and
marine-engine-making received their first powerful impulse from the solution of the
problem of ocean steam-navigation. From tables, constructed by Dr Strang from
returns furnished to him by tbe various ship-builders and engineers in Glasgow, Dum-
barton, Greenock, and Port- Glasgow, it appears that, during the seven years from
1846 to 1852, there were constructed at Glasgow and in its neighbourhood, 123
vessels, of which 1 was of wood, 122 of iron, 80 paddle, and 43 screw ; consisting of
200 woodeu tonnage ; 70,441 iron tonnage ; 6610 horse-power engines for wooden
hulls, 22,539 horse-power engines for iron hulls, and 4720 horse-power engines for
vessels not built on tbe Clyde. During the same period there were constructed in
Dumbarton, 58 vessels, all of iron, 20 being for paddles and 38 for screws, and having
a tonnage of 29.761 ; and during the last three years of the same period 3615 horse-
power engines were made there for iron hulls, and 200 horse-power engines for
vessels not built on the Clyde. During the same period, from 1846 to 1852, there
were constructed at Greenock and Port-Glasgow, 66 steam-vessels, of which 13 were
of wood, and 53 of iron, 41 paddle, and 25 screw ; consisting of 18,131 wood tonnage,
and 29,071 iron tonnage, 129 horse-power engines for wooden hulls, 5439 horse-
power engines for iron hulls, and 4514 horse-power engines for vessels not built on
the Clyde. For the whole ports in the Clyde, the steam- vessels built and tbe marine
engines made, from 1846 to 1852, were as follows : — Number of steam vessels built
—Wood hulls, 14; iron hulls, 233; in all, 247 ; of these 141 were paddles, and 106
screws. The tonnage of the wooden steamers amounts to 18,331, of the iron to
129,273. The engines* horse-power in wood hulls was 6739, the engines* horse- power
in iron hulls was 31,593 ; while there was of engines* horse-power for vessels not
constructed on the Clyde, 9434, making a grand total of 247 steamers, amounting
to 147,604 tons, and of engines 47,766 horse-power. The steam communication
which has, for several years, existed betwixt our West Indian and North American
colonies and the mother country, has recently been extended to Australia and the
Cape of Good Hope, thus uniting Great Britain to her most distant dependencies by
new and powerful ties, and literally realizing the vivid description of George Can-
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BELL. 203
ning, who, dilating on the benefits of steam-navigation, several years before the
death of Bell, described it as " that new and mighty power, new at least in the
application of its might, which walks the water like a giant, rejoicing in its course,
stemming alike the tempest and the tide — accelerating intercourse — shortening
distances — creating, as it were, unexpected neighbourhoods, and new combinations
of social and commercial relations, and giving to the fickleness of winds, and the
faithlessness of waves, the certainty and steadiness of a highway upon the land."
Whilst commerce and civilization were thus making rapid progress by means of his
invention, Henry Bell reaped no personal advantage from it. He even approached
the confines of old age in very straitened circumstances. Touched by his condition,
the late Dr Cleland, and a number of other benevolent individuals, commenced a
subscription on his behalf, by which a considerable sum was raised. The trustees
on the river Clyde granted him an annuity of £100, which has been continued to
his widow. This was but a becoming acknowledgment of the value of his great
invention on the part of the trustees of a river whose annual revenue was increased,
mainly by the impulse given to its trade by steam-navigation, from £6676 in 1810,
the year before Bell commenced the construction of the Comet, to £20,296 in 1830,
the year in which he died ; and which has been more than tripled during the last
twenty-two years, being, in 1852, £76,000. Within the same space of time, the
channel of the river has undergone a corresponding improvement, being rendered
navigable by ships of 700 and 800 tons burthen ; whereas, little more than half a
century ago, it was navigable only by coal gabbards and vessels of 30 to 45 tons.
The average available depth of the Clyde at high water of neap-tides, is 16 feet,
with an additional depth of two or three feet at spring- tides. At the Broomielaw,
the harbour of Glasgow, there are now 10,000 lineal feet of quayage, giving accom-
modation to hundreds of the largest ships belonging to the mercantile marine of this
and foreign countries. Mr Bell died at Helensburgh, March 14, 1830, aged sixty.
three, and lies buried in the Row churchyard. An obelisk to his memory was
erected on the rock of Dun glass, a promontory on the Clyde, about 2} miles above
Dumbarton.
BELL, John, of Antermony, a traveller of the eighteenth century, was the
son of Patrick Bell, the representative of that old and respectable family, and
of Anabel Stirling, daughter of Mungo Stirling, of Craigbarnet. He was born
in 1691, and, after receiving a classical education, turned his attention to the
study of medicine. On passing as physician, he determined to visit foreign countries,
but we shall insert this part of his history in Mr Bell's own words. " In my
youth," says he, " I had a strong desire of seeing foreign parts ; to satisfy which
inclination, after having obtained, from some persons of worth, recommendatory
letters to Or Areskine, chief physician and privy counsellor to the Czar Peter
the First, I embarked at London, in the* month of July, 1714, on board the
Prosperity of Ramsgate, Captain Emerson, for St Petersburg. On my arrival
there, I was received by Dr Areskine in a very friendly manner, to whom I com-
municated my intentions of seeking an opportunity of visiting some parts of Asia,
at least those parts which border on Russia. Such an opportunity soon presented
itself, on occasion of an embassy then preparing, from bis Czarish Majesty to the
Sophy of Persia." — Preface to his Travels. The ambassador fortunately applied
to Dr Areskine to recommend some one skilled in physic and surgery to go in
his suite, and Mr Bell was soon afterwards engaged in the service of the Russian
Emperor. He accordingly left St Petersburg on the 15th of July, 1715, and
proceeded to Moscow, from thence to Cazan, and down the Volga to Astracan.
The embassy then sailed down the Caspian Sea to Derbend, and journeyed by
Mougan, Tauris, and Saba, to Ispahan, where they arrived on the 14th of March,
Digitized by
Google
2U4 JOHN BELL.
1717. They left that city on the 1st of September, and returned to St Pelers-
hurgh on the 30th of December. L 7 L H, after having travelled across the country
from Sara toil! On his arrival in the capital, Mr Belt found that his friend and
patron Dr Areskine had died about six weeks before, but he hnd now* secured
the friendship of the ambassador, and upon hearing that an embassy to Chin*
was preparing he easily obtained ;m appointment in it through his influence.
The account (if his journey to Cazan, and through Siberia bo China, is by far
the most complete and interesting part of his travels. His description of the man-
ners, customs, and superstitions of the inhabitants, and of the He Lay-lama and
Chinese wall, deserve particularly to be noticed. They arrived at I'ekin " aftei
a tedious journey of exaetly sixteen months. 1 * Mr Bell has left a very full
account of occurrences during his residence in the capital of China. The em-
bassy left that city on the 2nd of M arch, 1721, and arrived at Moscow on the
5th of January, 1722.
The war between Russia and Sweden was now ronrluded, and the Czar had de
tern lined to undertake an expedition into Persia, at the request of the Sophy, to
assist that prince against the AfTgbans, his suhji-cts, who hail seized upon Kand-
ahar, and possessed themselves of several provinces on the frontiers touards India,
Mr Bell's former journey to Persia pave him peculiar advantages, and he was
accordingly engaged to accompany the army to DerbenU from which he relumed
in December, 1722* Soon afterwards he revisited bis native country, and re-
turned to St Petersburg in 1734. In 1737, he was sent to Constantinople by
the Russian Chancellor, and Mr Rondeau the British minister at the Russian
court. 1 He seems now to have abandoned the public service, and to have settled
at Constantinople as a merchant. About I 74n\ he married Mary Peters, a Bus*
sian lady, and determined to return to Scotland. He spent the Intter part of
his life on his UtrtPj and in the enjoyment of the society of his friends* At
length, after a long life spent in active henefirenre, and exertions for the g*>od
of mankind, he died at Antermony on the 1st of July, 1781), at the advanced
age of 89.
The only work written by Mr Bell is his "Travels from St Petersburgh in
Russia, to various parts of Asia,'* to which reference has already been made. It
was printed in 2 volumes quarto by Robert and Andrew Foulis, in 17o3 T and
published by subscription. " The history of this book," says the Quarterly
Review, " is somewhat citrious, and not prenflralJy known. For many years aftei
Mr Bell returned from his travels, he used to amuse his friends wilh account* oJ
what he had seen, refreshing his recollection from a simple diary of occurrences
and observations. The Farl Cirnnville, then president of the council, on hearing
some of his adventures, prevailed on him to throw bis notes together into the
form of a narrative, which, when done, pleased him so much that he sent the
manuscript to Dr Robertson, with a particular request that he would revise and
put it into a fit state for the press The literary avocations of the Scottish
historian at that time not allowing hiui to undertake the task, be recommended
Mr Barron, a professor in the T University of Aberdeen, and on this gentleman
consulting Dr Robertson ns to the style and the book of travels which he would
recommend him to adopt for his guide, the historian replied, ' Take Gulliver's
Travels fur your model, and you cannot go wrong.' He did so, and * Bell*
Travel*' have all the simplicity of Gulliver, with the advantage which truth
always carries over liction."*
BLXiL f John, an eminent surgeon in Edinburgh, and of distinguished literary
qualifications, was born in 17H2. He was the second son of the Rev, William
1 M+Ure*s Hislory cf (.iln^tiw, nuw eriitirm, p. 115.
1 Quarterly Ruvfcw on M*Lvod*s Voyuge In the Alccate, I SI 7, pp. 4645.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN BELL. 205
Bell, a clergyman of the Scottish Episcopal Church, established at Edinburgh.
His mother was the daughter of Mr Morrice, also a member of the Scottish Epis-
copal Church. Mr John Bell, after receiving a liberal education, became the
pupil of Mr Alexander Wood, surgeon, who was long celebrated in Edin-
burgh as a medical practitioner. From the first, Mr Bell devoted himself to his
professional studies with that enthusiastic ardour so characteristic of genius, and
almost always the precursor of distinction. After completing his professional
education he travelled for a short time in Russia, and the north of Europe ;
and on his return commenced his professional duties by delivering lectures on
Surgery and Midwifery. These lectures, which he delivered between the years
1786 and 1796, were very highly esteemed, and speedily brought him into
practice as a consulting and operating surgeon. The increase of his private
practice, indeed, rendered it necessary for him, in 1796, to discontinue his
lectures, and from that time forward he devoted himself to his patients, and to
the preparation of the several publications of which he was the author.
For upwards of twenty years Mr Bell may be said to have stood at the head
of his profession in Edinburgh as an operator. Patients came to him from all
quarters, both of Scotland and England, and even from the continent ; and
during that interval be performed some of the most delicate and difficult opera-
tions in surgery. Nor was his celebrity confined to Edinburgh. He was gene-
rally known both in this country and throughout the world, as one of the most
distinguished men in his profession ; and his works show that his reputation was
well founded.
Early in 1816, he was thrown by a spirited horse; and appears never to
have entirely recovered from the effects of the accident In the autumn of that
year he made an excursion, partly on account of his health, to London ; thence
he proceeded to Paris, and afterwards pursued his journey southwards, visiting
the most distinguished cities of Italy. During his residence on the Continent, he
was treated in the most flattering manner by the members of his own profession ;
and his countrymen, who, after the peace of 1815, had gone to the Continent
in great numbers, gladly took his professional assistance. In Paris, Naples, and
Rome in particular, his numerous patients occupied him perhaps too exclusively ;
for his health continued to decline, and he died at Rome, April 15, 1820, in
the fifty-seventh year of his age.
Mr Bell very early in life became impressed with a high notion of the ad-
vantage of combining general accomplishments with professional skill ; he there-
fore spared no pains to qualify himself in every way to assume a favourable po-
sition in society. He was a good classical scholar, and so general a reader that
there were few works of any note in literature, either ancient or modern, with
which he was not familiar. This was remarkably shown in his library, in which
there was hardly a volume on any subject which did not bear traces of having
been carefully perused and noted by him. His practice was to make annota-
tions on the margin as he read ; and considering the engrossing nature of his
professional labours, and the several works in which he was himself engaged,
nothing is more extraordinary than the evidence which is still in existence ci
the extent and variety of his miscellaneous reading.
The information which he thus acquired was not lost upon him ; he was po-
lished and easy in his manners — his perception of the ludicrous was keen — and
the tact with which he availed himself of his extensive reading and general
knowledge of all the interesting topics of the day, will be long remembered by
those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. His conversational powers,
indeed, were of the very highest order ; and as he had great urbanity and kind*
ness of manner, and was happily free from that affectation by which good talkers
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
206 * JOHN BELL.
lire sometimes distinguished, there were few of his eotemporaries whose society
was more generally courted by the upper classes in Edinburgh ; and none who
were better fitted to adorn and enliven the circle in which he moved.
Mr Bell's notions of the dignity of his profession were very high ; . and
no man perhaps ever discharged his professional duties with more disinterested
humanity, and honourable independence. His generosity to those whose cir-
cumstances required pecuniary aid was well known, and his contempt for any
thing approaching to what he thought mean or narrow minded, was boundless,
and frequently expressed in no very measured terms. The warmth of his tem-
per, however, involved him in several misunderstandings with his professional
brethren ; the most remarkable of which was that which brought him and the
late Dr Gregory into collision. The question on which these two distinguished
men took opposite sides, related to the right of the junior members of the Col-
lege of Surgefons of Edinburgh, to perform operations in the Royal Infirmary.
This dispute divided the medical men of Edinburgh towards the close of the last
century ; and Dr Gregory and Mr Bell wrote several volumes about- it. But,
although great wit and much happy sarcasm were displayed on both sides, it is
impossible to look back to this dissension without feeling regret that two of the
most eminent medical men of their day should have wasted their ingenuity and
high talents in acrimonious and unprofitable controversy, on a topic of epheme*
ral interest and comparatively minor importance. Mr Bell's principal publica-
tion in this controversy was entitled, " Letters on Professional Character and
Manners ; on the education of a Surgeon, and the duties and qualifications of a
Physician; addressed to James Gregory, M.D." Edinburgh, 1810. It is a
large octavo volume, and is characterised by extraordinary acrimony.
In the fine arts, Mr Bell's taste was very correct As a painter and draughts-
man his talents were far above mediocrity ; and the anatomical drawings by
which his works are illustrated have been much admired. He was also a profi-
cient in music, with more taste, however, than execution ; and, as Mrs Bell was
also a highly accomplished musician, his musical parties, although conducted on
a scale of expense which his circumstances hardly warranted, assembled at his
house the elite of Edinburgh society. He had no family, and his whole house
was laid out for this species of display — a foible which those who were inclined
to laugh at his expense, did not overlook ; and which was to a certain extent
censurable, since his income, although very large, was never equal to his ex-
penditure.
Mr Bell's personal appearance was good. Although considerably under the
middle size, he was exceedingly well proportioned, very active, and studiously
elegant in his movements. His head was well formed, his features regular, his
eyes keen and penetrating, and his whole expression intellectual and intelligent
in no ordinary degree. He was also remarkable for the good taste which he
exhibited in his dress ; and was altogether a person whom even a stranger could
not have passed without recognizing as no ordinary man.
The limits of this work do not admit of an analysis ot Mr Bell's writings. The
best is his treatise on " Gun-shot wounds," to enable him to prepare which, he
passed some weeks amongst the wounded men of Lord Duncan's fleet, after the
battle of Camperdown.
The following is a complete list of his professional works : — 1. The Anatomy
of the Human Body, voL i 8vo. 1793, containing the Bones, Muscles, and
Joints; vol. ii. 1797, containing the Heart and Arteries; vol. iii. 1802, con-
taining the Anatomy of the Brain, Description of the course of the nerves, and
the Anatomy of the Eye and Ear ; with plates by Charles Bell, third edition, 3
vols. dvo. 1811. 2. Engravings of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints, illustrating
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM BELLENDEN. 207
the first rolume of the Anatomy of the Human Body, drawn and engraved by
himself, royal 4to. 1794, third edition. 3. Engravings of the Arteries, illus-
trating the second rolume of the Anatomy of the Human Body, royal 4to. 1801,
third edition, 8vo. 1810. 4. Discourses on the nature and cure of wounds,
8vo. 1795; third edition, 1812. 5. Answer for the Junior Members of the
Royal College of Surgeons to the Memorial of Dr James Gregory, to the Mana-
gers of the Royal Infirmary, 8vo. 1800. 6. The Principles of Surgery, 3 vols.
4to. 1801-1808. 7. Letters on Professional Character, &c. His Observa-
tions on Italy is a posthumous work, which was edited by his respected friend,
the late Bishop Sandford of Edinburgh.
Mr Bell married Miss Congleton, daughter of Dr Congleton of Edinburgh.
His eldest brother was the late Robert Bell, Advocate, Professor of Conveyancing
to the Society of Writers to the Signet ; author of the •« Scotch Law Dictionary/'
and of several other works on the law of Scotland ; who died in 1816. John
Bell's immediately younger brothers were, the late George Joseph Bell, Advocate,
Professor of the Law of Scotland in the University of Edinburgh, and author
of "Commentaries on the Law of Scotland," a work of high authority; and
the late Sir Charles Bell, F.R.8. of London, the distinguished anatomist and
physiologist. It is rare to find so many members of the same family so favourably
known to the public.
BELLENDEN, William, more commonly known by his Latin name of Guliel-
mus Bellendenus, is one of those learned and ingenious Scotsmen of a former
age, who are esteemed in the general literary world as an honour to their coun-
try, but with whom that country itself is scarcely at all acquainted. As there
were many great but unrecorded heroes before Agamemnon, so may it be said
that there have flourished, out of Scotland, many illustrious Scotsmen, whose
names have not been celebrated in that country. It is time, however, that this
should cease to be the case, at least in reference to William Bellenden, whose
intellect appears to have been one of most extraordinary character, and whose
intellectual efforts, if in a shape to command more extensive appreciation, would
certainly be considered a great addition to those productions which reflect hon-
our upon his native country.
William Bellenden was unquestionably a member of that family whose name
has been variously spelled Ballenden, Ballantyn, and latterly Ballantyne, and
which has produced several men eminent in Scottish literature. He lived in
the reign of James VI., to whom he was Magister Supplicvm TAbellorwn, or
reader of private petitions, an office probably conferred upon him in considera-
tion of bis eminent learning. King James, whose many regal faults were re-
deemed in no small measure by his sincere love of literature, and his extensive
patronage of literary men, provided Bellenden with the means of leading a life
of studious retirement at the French capital, where he is said to have afterwards
become Professor of Humanity, and an advocate in the parliament of Paris. As
he is said to have enjoyed his office of professor in 1602, it would of course appear
that James had furnished the necessary allowances for the retirement of his
learned protegee out of the slender revenues which he enjoyed in his native
kingdom ; a circumstance which enhances the praise due to him for his munifi-
cence in a very high degree.
Bellendenus first work, entitled, " Ciceronis Princeps," and published, appa-
rently without his name, in 1608, is a treatise on the duties of a prince, formed
out of passages of the works of Cicero referring to that subject In this work, "he
shows that, whoever desires to exercise authority over others, should first of all
learn the government of himself; should remember and be obedient to every
thing which the laws command ; should on all occasions be ready to hear the
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
208 WILLIAM BELLENDEN.
sentiments of the wise ; disdaining whatever bears affinity to corruption, and
abhorring the delusions of flattery : he should be tenacious in preserving his
dignity, and cautious how he attempts to extend it; he should be remarkable
for the purity of his morals, and the moderation of his conduct, and never direct
his hand, his eye, or his imagination, to that which is the property of another." 1
To the u Ciceronis Princeps," in which Bellenden has only the merit of an in-
genious collector, was prefixed an original essay, styled, " Tractatus de Processu
et Scriptoribus Hei Politics!," in which there is a rich vein of masculine sense
and fervent piety, while the origin of our errors in religion, and of our defects
in policy and learning, is traced out with considerable accuracy and erudition.
In this treatise, the author, while he condemns the monstrous tenets of ancient
idolatry, and the gross corruptions of philosophy, bestows many just encomiums
on the wisdom and patriotism of some ancient legislators. He informs us that
among the Greek theorists, there is no systematic work on the science of poli-
tics, at once comprehensive in its principles, and applicable to real life ; but
acknowledges that much useful information may be gathered from the writings
of Xenophon, and the fragments of Solon, Charondas, and Zaleucus. On the
authority of Cicero, he represents Demetrius Phalereus as the first person who
united the practice of politics with a correct and profound knowledge of his art
He allows, however, great merit to Plato, to Aristotle, to Theophrastus, and other
imitators of Hippodamus, who, it seems, was the first writer on the subject of
government, without being personally concerned in the administration of it
He then speaks with becoming and warm admiration of Cicero, and enumerates
the political works of that writer which have come down to us — those which
were written by him, but are now lost — and those which he intended to draw
up at the request of Atticus.
Bellenden next published a treatise, formed like the foregoing from detached
passages in Cicero, regarding the duties of the consul, senator, and senate among
the Romans. It was entitled, " Ciceronis Consul, Senator, Populusque Romanus :
illustratus publici observatione juris, gravissimi usus disciplina, administrandi
temperata ratione : notatis inclinationibus teniporum in Rep. et actis rerum in
Senatu : quae a Ciceroniana nondum edita profluxere memoria, annorum dccx.
congesta in libros xvi. De statu rerum Romanorum unde jam manavit Ciceronis
Princeps, dignus habitus summorum lectione principum." Bellenden has here
shown, not only the duties of a senator, or statesman, but upon what basis the
rights of a free but jealous people are erected, and the hallowed care those in-
stitutions demand, which have descended to us from our ancestors. This work
was published at Paris, in 1612, and like the former, was dedicated to Henry,
Prince of Wales. On the title page, the author is termed " Magister Supplicum
Libellorum augusti Regis Magnse Britannia? ;» from which it would appear that
either there is a mistake in describing him as Master of Requests to the King of
Scotland, or he must have been subsequently preferred to the same office for
Great Britain. The office, since he resided at Paris, must have been a sinecure,
and was probably given to him as a means of sustaining him in literary leisure.
The next work of Bellenden was entitled, " De Statu Prisci Orbis, in Reli-
gione, Re Politico, et Literis, liber unus." It was printed, but may scarcely be
described as published, in 1615. This is the most original of Bellenden's works.
The expressions and sentiments are all his own, excepting the quotations which
he takes occasion to introduce from his favourite Cicero. In this work he has
" brought to light, from the most remote antiquity, mauy facts which had been
buried in oblivion. Whatever relates to the discipline of the Persians and
Egyptians, which was obscure in itself, and very variously dispersed, he has care-
1 Parr's Preface to Bellcndenus.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM BELLENDEN.
200
fully collected, placed in one uniform point of view, and polished with diligent
acuteness. In a manner the most plain and satisfactory, he has described the
first origin of states, their progressive political advances, and how they differed
from each other. Those fabulous inventions with which Greece has encumbered
history, he explains and refutes. Philosophy owes him much. He has confuted
all those systems which were wild and extravagant, and removed the difficulties
from such as were in their operation subservient to religious piety. But he has
in particular con finned and dignified with every assistance of solid argument,
whatever tended to serve the great truths of revelation. Much, however, as he
has been involved in the gloom of ancient times, he in no one instance assumes
the character of a cold unfeeling antiquary ; he never employs his talents upon
those intricate and useless questions in endeavouring to explain which many
luckless and idle theologists torment themselves and lose their labour. The style
of Bellendenus, in this performance, is perspicuous, and elegant without affecta-
tion. The different parts of the work are so well and so judiciously disposed,
that we meet with nothing harsh and dissonant, no awkward interval or inter-
ruption, nothing placed where it ought not to remain." 3
All these three works — namely, the " Princepa," the " Consul," and the " De
Statu Prisci Orbis," were republished in 1616, in a united form, under the ge-
neral title, " Dk Statu, Libri Tres." Prince Henry being now dead, the whole
work was dedicated anew to his surviving brother Charles ; a circumstance which
afforded the author an opportunity of paying an ingenious compliment to the
latter prince :
Uno avulso non deficit alter,
Aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo.
Of the justness of this eulogy the politician may have some doubt, but the man
of feeling will be captivated by its elegance and pathos. »
The last work which Bellenden himself published is of very small extent, con-
sisting merely of two short poems : " Caroli Primi et Henri cas Maria*, Regis et
Begin® Magna) Britannia?," &c. " Epithalamium ; et in ipsas augustissimas
nuptias, Panegyricum Carmen et Elogia." Paris, 1675, 4to. It would appear
that Bellenden did not soon forget the kind patronage which he had experienced
from King James, but transferred his gratitude, with his loyalty, to the descen-
dants of that prince. This is the only known specimen of Bellenden's efforts in
poetry.
The "De Statu, Libri Tres," which perhaps were never very extensively dif-
fused, had latterly become so extremely scarce, as only to be known by name to
the most of scholars. From this obscurity, the work was rescued in 1787, by
Dr Samuel Parr, the most eminent British Latinist of modern times. Dr Parr
republished it in an elegant form, with a preface, which, though embracing
a singular jumble of subjects, and not free from the charge of pedantry, is justly
looked upon as one of the most admirable specimens of modern Latin which we
possess. Imitating the example of Bellendenus, who prefixed a dedication to
each of his three books, the learned editor inscribed them anew to three great
men of modern times, Edward Burke, Lord North, and Charles James Fox, who
were then the leaders of his own party in British politics. In the preface, he
introduced a high allegorical eulogy upon these statesmen, which was admired
as a singularly nervous piece of composition, though there were, of course, diffe-
rent opinions as to the justness of the panegyric. He also exposed the plagiary
which Middleton, in composing his " Life of Cicero," had committed upon the
splendid stores of Bellenden.
While Bellenden was employed in writing his tripartite work, " De Statu," he
• Parr's Preface an
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
?10 WILLIAM BELLENDEN,
had Cicero constantly before him, " His warmest attachment, and increasing
adrniration,** to quote the words of Dr Parr, " were necessarily attracted to the
character whose writings were the object of his unremitting attention ; whose
express ions were as familiar to him as possible ; and whose various and profound
learning occupied all the faculties of his soul 1 * He now commenced a still more
extensive and laborious cento of the writings of the Homnn orator, which lie
concluded in sixteen books, and which, with the addition of similar oentoes of
the writings of Seneca and Pliny the Elder, was to hear the name, mi De Tribus
Lund tubus Homauorum." The Ciceronian cento, the only one lie lived to cum-
ulate, is justly considered a most extraordinnry performance. By an exertion
of fictitious machinery, akin to the modern historical romance, Cicero is intro-
duced as if he had spoken or written the whole from beginning to end. The
lirat seven books pve a very concise abstract of the Human lustory, from the
foundation of the city T to the tiiTth year, in which he was born. 1 hen he be-
comes more particular in th« account of his own times, and enlarges very fully
on all that happened after his first appearance in public business. He gircs an
account of the most remarkable of his orations and epistles, and the occasions on
which they were written, as also of such of his philosophical works as have come
down ta> us, and of some other pieces that are now lost, ending with a letter he
is supposed to have written to Uctaviauus, afterwards named Augustus, which let-
ter, however, is supposed to be spurious. There cannot be a more complete
history of the life of Cicero, or of the tumultuous times in which he lived, than
this work, all of which, by an exquisite ingenuity, is so faithfully compiled from
the known works of the orator, that probably- there is not in the whole book a
single expression, perhaps not a single word, which is not 10 be found in that
great storehouse of philosophical eloquence* Nor is there any incoherence or
awkwardness in this re-arrangement of Cicero's language ; but, on the contrary,
the matter flows as gracefully as in the original " Whatever we find/* says
FaiT T in the different writings of Cicero, elegantly expressed, or acutely con-
ceived, Bellendeuus has not only collected in one view, but elucidated in the
clearest manner. He, therefore, who peruses this performance with the attention
which it merits, will possess all the treasures of antiquity, all the energy of the
mightiest examples, lie will obtain an adequate knowledge of the H 0111:111 law,
and system of jurisprudence, and may draw, as from an inexhaustible source, an
abundance of expressions, the most exquisite in their kind" In the opinion of
another critic, 1 it h inconceivable that fiellenden could have composed this sin-
gular work, without having the whole of the writings of Cicero, and all the col-
lateral authorities, in his mind nt once, as it must have been quite impossible to
perform such a task by turning over the leaves of the hooks, in order to find the
different expressions suited to the various occasions where they were required.
After the death of .Uellcnden, the date of which is only known to have been
posterior to ItiiSS, the manuscript of his great work Jell into the hands of one
Toussaint du Bray, who printed it at Paris in 1631, or ll>34, and dedicated it
to King Charles I. of Great Britain. It is alleged that the principal part of
the impression, about a thousand copies, was shipped for side in Uritain, and
was lost on the passage, so that only a few copies survived. The work therefore
fell at once into obscurity, and in a few years was scarcely known to exist- One
copy having found its way to the Cambridge University Library, fell into the
hands of Conyers Middleion, the keeper of that institution, who seems to have
adopted the idea of making it the ground- work for a Life of Cicero under his
own name. Hence has arisen one of the most monstrous instances of literary
1 The late Earl of Bucluui, who had Urn extraordinary fortune to possess a couy of taJa
rare book,
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM BELLENDEN.
211
plagium which modern times hare witnessed. The work of Middleton at once
attained to great reputation, and chiefly through that skilful arrangement of the
writings of the orator himself; which Bellenden had provided to his lpnds. The
theft was first denounced hy Warton, and subsequently made clear by Dr Parr,
in his preface to the u De Statu* As the latter gentleman was prepossessed in
favour of both the literary and political character of Middleton, the terms in
which he speaks of the theft are entitled to the more weight. He commences
his exposure in the following strain of tender apology, which we quote in the
original, on account of its extraordinary beauty ; for we know not that even the
writings of Tully exhibit periods more harmonious, or that the human ear has
hitherto been gratified with a more enchanting sweetness of language :
" Litter© fhertmt Middletono, non vulgares has et quotidian®, sed uberrima et
maxime exquisite. Fuit judicium subtile limatumque. Teretes et religiose* fuer-
unt aures. Stylus est ejus ita purus ac suavis, ita salebris sine ullis profluens
quiddam et canorum habet, numeros ut videatur compleeti, quales in alio quopiam,
prsster Addisonom, frustra quaesiveris. Animum fuisse ejusdem parum candidum
ac sincerum, id vero, fateor invitus, dolens, cnactus."
" Middleton was a roan of no common attainments ; his learning was elegant
and profound, his judgment acute and polished ; he had a fine and correct taste ;
and his style was so pure and so harmonious, so vigorously flowing without being
inflated, that, Addison alone excepted, he seems to be without a rival. As to
his mind, I am compelled with grief and reluctance to confess, it was neither in-
genuous nor faithful.
" Of the faith of any man, in matters of religion, 1 I presume not to speak
with asperity or anger: yet I am vehemently displeased that a man pos-
sessed of an elegant and enlightened mind, should deprive Bellenden of the fame
he merited. For I assert, in the most unqualified terms, that Middleton is not
only indebted to Bellenden for many useful and splendid materials, but that)
wherever it answered his purpose, he has made a mere transcript of his work.
He resided at Cambridge, where he possessed all the advantages which that uni-
versity and all its valuable libraries afford, to make collections for his undertak-
ing. Yet did the man who proposed a system for the regulation of a university
library, possess the writings of tfellenden, anticipating all that he professed to
accomplish. I cannot deny but that he makes some allusion to this particular
work of BeUendenus in his preface, although in a very dark and mysterious
manner; particularly where he speaks of the history of those times, which, who-
ever wishes to understand minutely, has only to peruse Cicero's Epistles with at-
tention ; of the tediousness of being obliged to peruse Cicero's works two or
three times over ; of the care and trouble of consorting for future use various
passages scattered through the different volumes ; and, above all, of the very
words of Cicero, which give a lustre and authority to a sentiment, when woven
originally into the text.
" To conclude the whole — whatever Middleton ostentatiously declares it to
be his wish and his duty to do, had been already done to his hands, faithfully
and skilfully by BeUendenus, from the beginning to the end of the work !»
It is impossible to dismiss the life and singular writings of William Bellenden,
without a passing expression of regret, that so much ingenuity, so much learning,
so much labour, may be expended, without producing even the remuneration of
a name — for Bellenden, to use a phrase of Buchanan, is a light rather than a
name. His last work extended to 894 pages in folio, and he contemplated other
two of similar size, and equal labour. Yet all this was so futile, that the very
* .Middleton was a free-thinker.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
212 WILLIAM BEERY,
next generation of his own countrymen do not appear to have known ttiat such
a nun ever existed* Even after all the care of bibliographers and others, whldi
ha* searched out the few fact* embraced by this imperfect narrative, the name cif
Bellenden is only known in connexion with certain works, which are, it is true,
reputed to be admirable of their kind, but, for every practical purpose, are
almost as omirely Inst to the world at large, as those U6ri perdili of Cicero,
which he has himself alluded to with so much regret Nor can Bellenden ha
described as a man defrauded by cireu instances of that fame which forms at once
the best motive and the best reward of literature. He must have written with
hut very slender hope* of reputation through the medium of the press. It thus
becomes a curious subject of speculation, that so much pains should hare been
bestowed where there was so little prospect of its reflecting credit or profit upon
the labourer. And yet this seems to be rather in consequence of, Ulan in defi-
ance to the want of such temptation. The works of the ancient classics, writ-
ten when there wtlh no vehicle but iiiaiinsmpla for their circulation, and a very
small circle in which they could be appreciate are, of all literary performances,
the most carefully elaborated : those of the age when printing was in i(a infancy,
such ai the works of Hellenden and niher great LatiuUts, aw only a decree in-
ferior in accuracy and finish ; while these latter times, so remarkable for the fa-
cility with which the works of men of genius are diffused* have produced hardly
a single work, which can be pointed to as a perfect specimen of careful work-
manship and faultless taste* There is something not ungraiifying in this reflec-
tion ; it serins to atone to the great memories of ttie past, for the imperfect re-
wards which they enjoyed in life or in fame. If we could suppose that the lofty
spirits who once brightened the lustre of knowledge and literature, and died
without any contemporary praise, still look down from their spheres upou the
present world, it would gratify the moral faculties u> think of the pleasure which
they must have, in contemplating their half-forgotten but unsurpassed labours,
and in knowing that men yet look back to them as the giant* of old who hate
left no descendant* in the land. Thus even the aspirate " name " of Bellenden,
which almost seems as if it had never had a mortal man attached to it, might
reap a shadowy joy from the present humhle effort to render it the justice which
has been so long withheld,
BERNARD, made abbot of A herb roth irk in 1303, and the first chancellor of
king Robert HflM after his assumption of the crown in 13CHi, deserves a place
in this work, as the supposed writer of that spirited remonstrance which the Scot-
tish nobility and barons transmitted, in 131*. to the Roman pontiff, asserting
the independent of their country. He held the great seal till his death in
1327. Crawford supposes that his surname was Linton.
Bl£RflY, Wilmam, an ingenious artist, was horn about tile year 1730, and
bred to the business of a seal-engraver. After serving an apprenticeship under
a Mr .Proctor at Kdinhurgh, he commenced husiness for himself in that city, and
soon became distinguished for the elegance of his designs, and the clearness and
sharpness of his mode of culling. At tins time the business of a stone-engraver
in tile Scottish capital was confined to the cutting of ordinary seals, and the most
elaborate work of this kind which they undertook, was that of engraving the
armorial bearings of the nobility. Mr Berry* views were for several years con-
fined to ibis common drudgery of his art ; but, by studying some ancient entaglios,
ho at length conceived the design of venturing into that higher walk, which
might be said to bear the same relation to seal-engraving, which historical paint-
ing df**s to portrait-painting. The subject he chose for hi* first essay was ahead
of Sir Isaac Newton, which he executed with such precision and delicacy, as
astonished ail who had an opportunity of observing it. The modesty of i>lr
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WILLIAM BERRY. 213
Berry permitted him to consign this gem to the hand a of a friend in a retired
situation of life, wtio had few opportunities of showing it to others. Ho resumed
his wonted drudgery, satisfied, we may suppose, with that secret consciousness
of triumphant exertion, which, to some abstracted minds, is not to he increased,
but rather spoi It , l>y the applause of the uninitiated multitude. For many years
this ingenious man ,f narrowed 1 U j mind ** to the catting of heraldic seals, while
in reality, he must have known that his genius fitted him for a competition with
the highest triumphs of Italian art. When he was occasionally asked to under-
take somewhat finer work, he generally found that, though he only demanded
perhaps half the money which he could have earned in humbler work during the
same space of time, yet even that was grudged by Ins employers ; and he there-
fore found that mere considerations of worldly prudence demanded his almost
exclusive attention to the ordinary walk of his profession.
Nevertheless, in the course of a few years, the impulse of genius so far over-
came his scruples, that he executed various heads, any one of which would have
been sunVieut to ensure liim fame among judges of excellence in this depart-
ment of art Among these were heads of Thomson, author of ** the Seasons,^
Mary Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell, Julius Ta?sar, a young Hercules, and Mr
Hamilton of Ilangour, the well-known poeL Of these only two were copies from
the antique ; and ibey were executed in the finest style of those celebrated enta-
glios. Tile young Hercules, in particular, possessed an unaffected plain simpli-
city, n ttuloa of youthful innocence with utrength and dignity, which itruck
every beholder as most appropriate to that mythological personage, while it was,
at the same time, the most difficult of all expressions to be hit off by the faithful
imitator of nature. As an actor finds it much less difficult, to imitate any extra-
vagant violence of character, than to represent, with truth and perspicuity, the
elegant ease of the gentleman ; so the painter can much more easily delineate
the most violent contortions of countenance, than that placid serenity, to express
which requires a nice discrimination of suck infinitely small degrees of variation
in certain lineaments, as totally elude the observation of men, on whose minds
nature has not impressed, with her irresistible hand, that exquisite perceptive
faculty, which constitutes the essence of genius in the fine arts.
Berry possessed this perceptive faculty to a degree which almost proved an
obstruction, rather than a help, in his professional careen In his best perform-
ances, he himself remarked defects which no one else perceived, and which he
believed might have been overcome by greater exertion, if for (!i,Lt greater exer-
tion he could have spared the necessary time. Thus, while others applauded his
entaglios, he looked upon them with a morbid feeling of vexation, arising from
the sense of that struggle which his immediate personal wants constantly main-
tained with the nobler impulses of art, and to which his situation in the world
promised no speedy cessation. This gave him an aversion to the higher depart-
ment of his art, which, though indulged to Ins own temporary comfort, and the
advantage of his family, was most unfortunate for the world.
In spite of every disadvantage, the works of Mr Berry, few as they were in
number, became gradually known in society at large ; and some of his pieces
were even brought into competition, by some distinguished cognoscenti, with
those of Piccler at Home, who had hitherto been the unapproachod sovereign ot
this department of the arts. Although the experience of Piccler was that of a
constant practitioner, while Mr Berry had only attempted a few pieces at long
intervals in the course of a laborious life ; although the former lived in a country
where every artificial object was attuned to the principles of art, while Mr Berry
was reared in a soil remarkable for the ahsenco of all such advantages ; the lat-
ter was by many good judges placed above his Italian contemporary, The rc-
Google
Digitized by
214 WILLIAM BERRY.
spective works of the two artists were well known to each other ; and each de-
clared, with that manly ingenuousness, which very high genius alone can con-
fer on the human mind, that the other was greatly his superior.
Mr Berry possessed not merely the art of imitating busts or figures set before
him, in which he could observe and copy the prominence or depression of the
parts ; but he possessed a faculty which presupposes a much nicer discrimination ;
that of being able to execute a figure in relievo, with perfect justness in all its
parts, which was copied from a painting or drawing upon a flat surface. This
was fairly put to the test in the head he executed of Hamilton of Bangour
That gentleman had been dead several years, when his relations wished to have
a head of him executed by Berry. The artist had himself never seen Mr Ham-
ilton, and there remained no picture of him but an imperfect sketch, which was
by no means a striking likeness. This was put into the hands of Mr Berry, by
a person who had known the deceased poet, and who pointed out the defects of
the resemblance in the best way that words can be made to correct things of this
nature ; and from this picture, with the ideas that Mr Berry had imbibed from
the corrections, he made a head, which every one who knew Mr Hamilton, al-
lowed to be one of the most perfect likenesses that could be wished for. In
this, as in all his works, there was a correctness in the outline, and a truth and
delicacy in the expression of the features, highly emulous of the best antiques ;
which were, indeed, the models on which he formed his taste.
The whole number of heads executed by Mr Berry did not exceed a dozen ;
but, besides these, he executed some full-length figures of both men and animals,
in his customary style of elegance. That attention, however, to the interests of
a numerous family, which a man of sound principles, as Mr Berry was, could
never allow himself to lose sight of, made him forego those agreeable exertions,
for the more lucrative, though less pleasing employment, of cutting heraldic seals,
which may be said to have been his constant employment from morning to night,
for forty years together, with an assiduity that almost surpasses belief! In this
department, he was, without dispute, the first artist of his time ; but even here,
that modesty which was so peculiarly his own, and that invariable desire of giv-
ing perfection to every thing he put out of his hand, prevented him from drawing
such emoluments from his labours as they deserved. Of this the following anec-
dote will serve as an illustration, and as an additional testimony of his very great
skill. Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, on succeeding to his title and estates, was
desirous of having a seal cut, with his arms properly blazoned upon it But, as
there were no fewer than thirty-two compartments in the shield, which was of
necessity confined to a very small space, so as to leave room for the supporters
and other ornaments, within the compass of a seal of ordinary size, he found it
a matter of great difficulty to get it executed. Though a native of Scotland
himself, the noble Duke had no idea that there was a man of firetr-rate eminence
in this art in Edinburgh ; and accordingly he had applied to the best seal-en-
grravers in London and Paris, all of whom declared it to be beyond thejsj power.
At this time, Berry was mentioned to him, with such powerful recommendations,
that be was induced to pay him a visit, and found him, as usual, seated at his
wheel. The gentleman who had mentioned Mr Berry's name to the Duke,
accompanied him on his visit This person, without introducing the Duke,
showed Mr Berry the impression of a seal which the Duchess-dowager had got
cut a good many years before by a Jew in London, now dead, and which had
been shown to others as a pattern ; asking him if he would cut a seal the same
as that After examining it a little, Mr Berry answered readily, that he would.
The Duke, at once pleased and astonished, exclaimed, "Will you, indeed!"
Mr Berry, who thought that this implied some doubt of his ability to perform
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
HUGH BINNING. 215
what he undertook, was a little piqued, and turning round to the Duke, whom
he had never before seen, he said, u Yes, Sir ; if I do not make a better seal
than this, I will charge no payment for it*' The Duke, highly pleased, left the
pattern with Mr Berry, and went away. The original contained, indeed, the
various devices of the thirty-two compartments distinctly enough to be seen ; but
none of the colours were expressed.- Mr Berry, in proper time, finished the
seal ; on which the figures were not only done with superior elegance, but the
colours on every part so distinctly marked that a painter could delineate the
whole, or a herald blazon it, with perfect accuracy. For th\s extraordinary and
most ingenious labour, he charged no more than thirty-two guineas, though the
pattern seal had cost seventy-five. Thus it was, that, though possessed of talents
unequalled in their kind, at least in Britain, and assiduity not to be surpassed,—
observing at the same time the strictest economy in his domestic arrangements-
Mr Berry died at last, in circumstances far from affluent, June 3d, 1783, in the
fifty-third year of his age, leaving a numerous family of children. It had been
the lot of this ingenious man, to toil unceasingly for a whole life, without obtain*
ing any other reward than the common boon of mere subsistence, while his abili-
ties, in another sphere, or in an age more qualified to appreciate and employ
them, might have enabled him to attain at once to fame and fortune in a very
few years. His art, it may be remarked, has made no particular progress in
Scotland, in consequence of his example. The genius of Berry was solitary,
both in respect of place and time, and has never been rivalled by any other of
his countrymen. It must be recorded, to the honour of this unrequited genius,
that his character in private life was as amiable and unassuming as his talents
were great ; and that his conduct on all occasions was ruled by the strictest prin-
ciples of honour and integrity.
BINNING, Hugh, an extraordinary instance of precocious learning and genius,
was the son of John Binning of Dalvennan, a landed gentleman of Ayrshire.
He appears to have been born about the year 1627. In his earliest years he
outstripped all his seniors in the acquisition of Latin. At Glasgow college, which
he entered in his fourteenth year, he distinguished himself very highly in philo-
sophy. What was to others only gained by hard study, seemed to be intuitively
known by Binning. After taking the degree of Master of Arts, he began to
study for the church. When Mr James Dalrymple, afterwards Lord Stair, vacated
the chair of philosophy at Glasgow, Binning, though not yet nineteen, stood a
competitor with some men of graver years and very respectable acquirements,
and gained the object of his ambition by the pure force of merit. Though un-
prepared for entering upon his duties, no deficiency was remarked. He was one
of the first in Scotland to reform philosophy from the barbarous jargon of the
schools. While fulfilling the duties of his chair in the most satisfactory manner,
he continued his study of theology, and a vacancy occurring in the church of
Govan, near Glasgow, he received a call to be its minister. Here he married
Barbara Simpson, the daughter of a presbyterian clergyman in Ireland. As a
preacher, Mr Binning* fame was very great: his knowledge was extensive, and
there was a fervour in his eloquence which bore away the hearts of his congrega-
tion, as it were, to heaven. At the division of the church into Kesolutioners
and Protesters, he took the latter and more zealous side, but yet was too full of
virtuous and benevolent feeling to be a violent partizan. In order to heal the
difference as much as possible, he wrote a treatise on Christian love. When
Oliver Cromwell came to Glasgow, he caused a dispute to be held between his
own independent clergymen, and the Scottish presbyterian ministers. Binning
having nonplussed his opponents, Cromwell asked the name of " that bold young
man." On being told that he was called Mr Hugh Binning, the sectarian gene-
Digitized by
Google
210
CHARLES BISSET.
nl said j " He li.i i ii bound well, indeed, but >' (clapping his hand upon his sword,
14 thii wilt loose oil again." This excellent young preacher died of consumption,
1G53, in hi* twenty-sixth year, leaving behind him a reputation for piety, vir-
tue, and learning, such as has rarely been attained by any individual under that
age. Besides hii treatise on Christian love, he wrote many miscellaneous pieces,
of a pious nature, which were published, in 1732, in one volume quarto. A
selection from these, under the title of " Evangelical Beauties of Hugh Binning,**
appeared in lSflt), with a memoir of the author by the Rev John Brown of
Whitburn,
BISSAT, ok BISSART, Fitter, professor of the Canon Law in the University
of IWiojiia, was born in Fife in the reign of James V., being a descendant oi
Thmnas Bissat, or Bissart, who was Earl of Fife in the reign of David II. He
received instructions in grammar, philosophy, and the laws, at the University oi
St Andreira, and afterwards perfected his education at that of Paris. Having
then travelled into Italy, he was honoured by the University of Bononia with
i lie degree of Doctor of Laws, and shortly after became professor of the Canon
Law in that seminary, in which situation he continued for several years, " with
great applause."
Dissat appears to have been a man of general accomplishment — a poet, an
orator, and a philosopher ; but his forte lay in the Canon Law. His various
writings were published at Venice in 1565, in quarto, under the title, "Patricii
Uissarti Opera Omnia, viz. Poemata, Orationes, Lectiones Feriales, et Liber de
irregular itnte." J he Lost of these compositions was a commentary on that part
of the Canon Law which gives the reasons assigned by the Church of Rome for
eatdudi n» certain laymen from the clergy. 1 Bissat died in the latter part of the
year I5(i3,
BISSET, CtuAus, an ingenious physician and writer on Fortification, was
i*orn at tilenaJbert, near Dunkeld, in the year 1717. It is alone known, re-
cording his parentage, that his father was a lawyer of some eminence, and a
distinguished Latin ist After a course of medical studies at Edinburgh, he was
appointed, in 1740, second surgeon of the Military Hospital in Jamaica, and
spent several years in the West India Islands, and in Admiral Vernon's fleet, in
1 Of these, as detailed by Bissat, an abstract may be interesting to the British reader,
HOW happily so little familiar with ilie syslems of the Catholic Church, Th* primitive
Christians, in admitting the Her^y, observed exactly the rules laid down by St Paul in the
lirsl ep stle to Timothy. Yet sometimes, as we Learn from $t Cyprian, at the pressing in-
stance of the people, persons of noted merit, who refused through humility, were compelled
to enter. By the canon*, however, a man required to by a deacon before he could be a priest.
Sad a priest before he could be a bishop. It was a general principle of the r Lurch, thai the
clergy should be chosen from the most holy of the laity, and, therefore, all Liable to Any re-
preach in their Lives ami conversations, were excluded". Agreeably to this principle, which
agreed with the injunction of St Paul, that they should be bin m ideas and without reproach.,
the fi»L council of Kke excluded all those, specifically, who, after baptism, had been jruihy
of any sort of crime, such as lirrcfly, homicide, or adultery; nor wa<* penance any pallia-
live, Meting that the memory of the « fiance always ri'mnined ; while it fits to be ex peered
that ihusH whusii lives were without slain should 'be preferred to (feus* who had fallen. Thus
ail persons who had tier formed penance were excluded, Those also were deemed irrr*ular t
and not entitled to admittance, who liad killed any person, by accident or in self-defence,
or who had home arms even in a just war; who had twtre married, or married a widow ;
or who engaged much in worldly ailaire; all of which cimiimunnces were held ha derogating
in some degree from the necessary purity of the individual. The only other moral disqua-
lification %vas ignorance : the physi<*nl disiju all Ileal loan were almost equally numerous. All
deaf, dumb, or blind persons wore excluded, as unable to perform their functions in a pro-
per manner* AH pcrsvns who were lame, or had any deformity calculated to create an
a version in the people, were declared unfit fur orders* ' Madness and self- mutilation were
disq unifications- All persons bom out of wedlock were excluded, because, however innn-
Cfin the individual in his own person, the associ aliens which the sfcht of them was cnltu-
lated to awaken, were not favourable to virtue. Slaves, servants, children, and monastic
clergy without the consent of their superiors, were excluded.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
CHARLES BISSET. 217
order to become acquainted with the diseases of the torrid zone* The physician
who studies new and local forms of disease, with their symptoms, and natural
and accidental terminations, whatever may be his success as a medical practi-
tioner, may justly be said to perform good service to his kind. His observations
are not of less value than those of the cautious and expert navigator, who
searches and describes shores hitherto unknown. But, while thus seeking to avert
disease from others, Dr Bisset became himself liable to its ravages. Having, in
1745, contracted ill health at Greenwich in Jamaica, he was under the necessity
of resigning his situation as second surgeon, in order to return to Britain. In
May, 1746, he purchased an ensigncy in the 42nd (Highland) regiment, so well
known for a long train of military glories, and which was then commanded by
Lord John Murray. By this transition, his attention was turned from the medi-
cal to the military profession, and fortification became his favourite study. After
a fruitless descent on the coast of Brittany in September, 1748, and passing a
winter at Limerick in Ireland, the regiment was, in the beginning of next cam-
paign, brought into action at Sandberg, near Hulst, in Dutch Flanders, where
one Dutch and two English regiments suffered very severely. Here Dr Bisset
employed himself in drawing a sketch of the enemy's approaches, and some time
after, in another of Bergen-op-Zoom, with the permanent lines, the environs,
and the enemy's first parallel ; which were presented by his colonel to the Duke
of Cumberland, the commander-in-chief. The Duke was so much pleased with
these specimens of Dr Bisset's military knowledge, that he ordered him to attend
the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom, and give due attention daily to the progress of
both the attack and the defence, in order to form a journal of the whole pro-
ceedings. This distinguished duty Dr Bisset undertook with a modest reluc-
tance, the result rather of inexperience than of any consciousness of want of
knowledge. The result, however, was highly honourable to him. His journals,
duly illustrated with plans, were daily delivered to Lord John Murray, who for-
warded them every second or third day, to the Duke, who was then at Maastricht,
at the head of the allied army, observing the motions of the French army under
Marshal Saxe. His royal highness was pleased to express his approbation, by
recommending Dr Bisset to the Duke of Montagu, then master-general of the
ordnance, who honoured him with a warrant as engineer extraordinary to the
brigade of engineers ; he was at the same time promoted to a lieutenancy in
the army.
At the end of the war, being placed on half-pay, he had full leisure to pursue
his studies in fortification, and also to visit the principal specimens of the .art
upon the Continent The result was his " Essay on the Theory and Construc-
tion of Fortifications," which appeared in 1751, in 8vo.
His attention being now disengaged from this pursuit, he resumed his original
profession, and, for the sake of a salubrious air, which was necessary to his
weakly constitution, retired to practise at the village of Skelton, in Cleveland,
Yorkshire, where he spent all the remainder of his life. In 1755, when the
Seven Years' War was impending, he published a " Treatise on the Scurvy, with
Remarks on the Cure of Scorbutic Ulcers," which he dedicated to Viscount An-
son, and the other Lords of the Admiralty. In 1762, appeared his " Essay on
th? Medical Constitution of Great Britain," which he inscribed to his friend Sir
John Pringle. In this work he shows the effects of the change of weather, and
of the seasons, on the diseases of Great Britain ; and at the conclusion is an
interesting paper on the virtues of the herb Bear's-foot, in the cure of worms.
In 1765, the University of St Andrews conferred upon him the degree of M.D.
In 1766, he published, at Newcastle, a volume of " Medical Essays and Observa-
tions," in which are upwards of twenty papers on the climate and diseases of the
gitized by G00gk
218 JOSEPH BLACK, M.D.
West Indies, which his experience in that country had enabled him to illustrate
in a most satisfactory manner ; besides some others on the chronic diseases of
Great Britain, particularly the hooping-CvHigh and the scorbutic itch, as well as
many chirurgical remarks, which show a mivid bont on the improvement of his
profession. A few years before his death, he deposited, in the Library of the
Infirmary at Leeds, a manuscript of medical observations, in octavo, and extend-
ing to nearly seven hundred pages ; for which the physicians of that institution
honoured him with a formal vote of thanks. Dr Bisset also presented a manu-
script treatise on fortification to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.) ;
which was. deposited in his Royal Highuess's private library. These, with a
small published treatise on naval tactics, and a few political papers, constituted
the whole of the intellectual exertions of this distinguished man ; who died at
Knayton, near Thirsk, in May 1791, aged seventy-five years.
BLACK, Joseph, M.D. " the illustrious Nestor (as he has been termed by
Lavoisier) of the chemical revolution, 9 ' — was not a native of Scotland, having
been born on the banks of the Garonne, in France ; but as his father was of
Scottish extraction, while his mother was a native of that country, and as Scot*
land, further, was the scene not only of the better part of his life, but of all
those exertions in science which will transmit his name to posterity, it seems pro-
per that he should obtain a place in this work, even at the expense of a slight
violation of its leading principle.
John Black, the father of the illustrious subject of this memoir, was a native
of Belfast, descended, as already mentioned, from a Scottish family, which had
for some time been settled there. For the purpose of carrying on the profession
of a wine-merchant, he resided chiefly at Bourdeaux, where he married a daugh-
ter of Mr Robert Gordon of Hillhead in Aberdeenshire ; a gentleman who also
resided at Bourdeaux, and was engaged in the same trade. The sister of Mrs
Black was mother to Mr Russel, professor of natural philosophy in the university
of Edinburgh, and their aunt was mother to Dr Adam Ferguson, professor of
moral philosophy in the same college, and author of the History of the Roman
Republic. While Mr John Black resided at Bourdeaux, he was honoured with
the friendship of Montesquieu, who was president of the parliament or court of
justice in that province. " My father," says Dr Black, " was honoured with
President Montesquieu's friendship, on account of his good character and virtues.
He had no ambition to be very rich ; but was cheerful and contented, benevolent
and liberal-minded. He was industrious and prudent in business, of the strictest
probity and honour, very temperate and regular in his manner of life. He and
my mother, who was equally domestic, educated thirteen of their children, eight
sons and five daughters, who all grew up to men and women, and were settled in
different places. My mother taught her children to read English, there being
no school for that purpose at Bourdeaux." The regard which Montesquieu en-
tertained for Mr Black was testified in the warmest terms, when the latter was
proposing to return to his native country. " I cannot," said he, on that occasion,
" be reconciled to the thoughts of your leaving Bourdeaux. I lose the most
agreeable pleasure I had, that of seeing you often, and forgetting myself with
you.'*
Dr Black was born in the year 1728. In 1740, a few years before his father
retired from business, he was sent home, in order to have the education of a
British subject After spending some time at the schools of Belfast, he was sent
in 1746, to complete his studies at the college of Glasgow. Here his attention
became decidedly fixed upon physical science; insomuch that, on being desired
to select a profession, he chose that of medicine, on account of its allowing the
greatest scope for such studies. It was about this time that Dr Cullen had been
Digitized by
Google
JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. 219
Appointed lecturer on chemistry in Glasgow university. Hitherto this science
had been only treated as a curious, and, in some respects, a useless art. This
great man, conscious of his own strength, and taking a wide and comprehensive
view, saw the unoccupied field of philosophical chemistry open before him. He
was satisfied that it was susceptible of great improvement, by means of liberal
inquiry and rational investigation. It was perhaps the good fortune of Dr Black,
in falling under such a master, that gave his mind a peculiar bent in favour of
this department of physical science. His previous acquirements and extraordin-
ary aptitude speedily became known to Dr Cullen, who was at all times remark-
able for the personal attentions he paid to his pupils. Black became a valuable
assistant to Dr Cullen in his chemical operations, and his experiments were some-
times publicly adduced in the lecture, as a sufficient authority for various new
facts. Thus commenced a friendship between two great men, which was never
afterwards interrupted, except by the Great Divider of kindred minds and loving
hearts, and which was of considerable service to mankind.
In 1751, Black was sent to Edinburgh to complete the course of his medical
studies. At this time, the mode of action of lithotriptic medicines, but parti-
cularly lime water, in alleviating the pains of stone and gravel, divided the opin-
ions of professors and practitioners. This subject attracted the attention of Black,
and it appears from some of his memorandums, that he at first held the opinion,
that the causticity of alkalis was owing to the igneous matter which they derive
from quick lime. Having prosecuted his experiments on magnesia, the grand
secret of nature, which for ever will be associated with his name, was laid open
to him. He perceived that the acrimony of these substances was not owing to
their combination with igneous particles ; that it was their peculiar property ;
and that they lost this property, and became mild, by combining with a certain
portion of air, to which he gave the name of fixkd air ; because it was fixed or
become solid in the substances, into the composition of which it entered. He
discovered, for instance, that & cubic inch of marble consisted of half its weight
of pure lime, and a quantity of air equal to six gallons measure. This grand
discovery, which forms one of the most important eras of chemical science, was
the subject of his inaugural essay, on obtaining his degree as doctor of medicine ;
and the reputation it acquired for him, was the means, in 1756, of placing him
in the chair of chemistry at Glasgow, then vacated by Dr Cullen, who was trans-
ferred to the same chair in the college of Edinburgh. The theory of fixed air
(now termed by chemists, carbonic acid gas,) was speedily propagated on the con-
tinent, where at this time chemistry was occupying the attention of many great
men. In Germany, Dr Black's opinions, though placed on the firmest basis by
experiments, met with much opposition, which, it appears, gave him an uneasi-
ness not to have been expected from his philosophical, and rather indolent char-
acter. In France, however, he was very differently treated. Lavoisier, in send-
ing him a copy of his treatise on respiration, thus expressed himself: " It is but
just you should be one of the first to receive information of the progress made
in a career which you yourself have opened, and in which all of us here consider
ourselves your disciples." To this Black replied, with a just admiration of what
the French chemists were doing, and without reference to any merit of his own.
On his assuming the chair of chemistry at Glasgow, that of anatomy was also
imposed upon him ; but this latter he soon exchanged for that of medicine, for
which, it would appear, he was better qualified. He gave great satisfaction by
the perspicuity and simplicity, the caution and moderation, which he discovered
in his medical lectures. At the same time, he became a favourite practitioner in
the city, where his engaging appearance and manners, and the benevolent
and unaffected interest which he took in all the cases entrusted to his care, ren*
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
220 JOSEPH BLACK, M.D,
[lured him a most welcome visitor in every family. Mis principal friend at
Glasgow was his associate Dr Adam Smith, professor of moral philosophy, wilh
whom ho had become intimate, when attending the university as a student A
peculiar simplicity and sensibility, an incorruptible integrity p the strictest deli-
cacy and correctness of manners, marked the character of each of the philoso-
phers, and firmly bound them in tbe closest union.
Cf It seems to have been between the year I75'l and 1763,* that his specula*
tions concerning heat, which had long occupied his thoughts, were brought to
maturity. And when it is considered by what simple experiments, by what
familiar observations, Dr Block illustrated tlu laws of fluidity and eraporalion.
it appears wonderful that they bad not ton^ beforo been observed and demon-
strated. They are, however, less obvious than might at first sijjht be imagined,
and to have a distinct and clear conception of those seemingly simple processes of
nature, required consideration and reflection. If a piece of wood, a piece of lead,
and a piece of ice, are placed in a temperature much inferior to that of the body ;
and if we touch the piece of wood with the band, it feels cold ; if we touch the piece
of lead, it feels colder still ; but the piece of ice feels colder than either. Now,
the first suggestion of sense is, that we receive cold from the wood ; that we re-
cei ve more from the lead : and most of all from the ice ; and that the ice con-
tinues to be a source of cold till the whole be melted. But an inference pre-
cisely the contrary to all this is made by him, whose attention and reflection has
been occupied with this subject He infers that the wood takes a little heat from
the hand, but is soon heated so much as to take no more. The lead takes more
heat before it be as much satiated ; and the ice continues to feel equally cold,
and to carry off" heat as fast as in the first moment, till the whole be melted.
This, then, was the inference made by Dr I) Licit
" Boerhaave has recorded an interesting observation by Fahrenheit, namely,
that water would some times grow considerably colder titan melting snow without
freezing, and would freeze in a moment when shaken or disturbed ; and in the
act of freezing give out many degrees of heat. Founded on this observation, U
appears that Dr I Hack entertained some vague notion or conjecture, that the
heat which was received by the ice, during its conversion into water, was not
lest, hut was still contained in the water. And he hoped to verify this conjec-
ture, by making a comparison of the time required to raise a pound of water one
degree in its temperature, with the time required to melt a pound of ice, both
being supposed to receive tile heat equally fast. And that be might ascertain
how much heat was extricated during congelation, ho thought of comparing the
time required to depress the temperature of a pound of water one degree, with
the time required for freezing it entirely. The plan of this scries of experiments
occurred to him during the summer season. But for want of ice, which he could
net then procure, he had no opportunity of putting them to the test He there-
fore waited impatiently for the winter. The winter arrived, and the decisive
experiment was performed in the month of December 17(j I. From this experi-
ment it appeared that as much heat was taken up by the ice, during its liquefac-
tion, as would have raised the water 140 degrees in its temperature, and on (he
tther hand, that exactly the same quantity of beat was given out during the
congelation of the water. But this experiment, the result of which Dr Black
eagerly longed for, only informed him how much heat was absorbed by the ice
during liquefaction, was retained by the water while it remained fluid, and was
again emitted by it in the process of freezing. But his mind was deeply im-
pressed with the truth of the doctrine, by reflecting on the observations that
1 The fullowin* most interesting account of one of I he principal discoveries in modern sri~
snee Is from a biographical memoir, prefixed by professor Rouison to Dr Black's lectures.
Digitized by
Google
JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. 221
presented themselves when a frost or thaw happened to prevail. The hills ore
not at once cleared of snow during the sunshine of the brightest winter day, nor
were the ponds suddenly covered with ice during a single frosty night Much
heat is absorbed and fixed in the water during the melting of the snow ; and
on the other hand, while the water is changed into ice, much heat is extricated
During a thaw, the thermometer sinks when it is removed from the air, and
placed in the melting snow ; and during severe frost, it rises when plunged into
freezing water. In the first case, the snow receives heat ; and in the last, the
water allows the heat to escape again. These were fair and unquestionable in
ferences, and now they appear obvious and easy. But although many ingenious
and acute philosophers had been engaged in the same investigations, and had
employed the same facts in their disquisitions, those obvious inferences were en
tirely overlooked. It was reserved for Dr Black to remove the veil which hid
this mystery of nature, and by this important discovery, to establish an era in
the progress of chemiail science, one of the brightest, perhaps, winch lias yet
occurred in Its history,"
Dr Black explained his theory of latent heat — such was the name he himself
gare to it-^to the members of a literary society, April 23, 1702, and afterwards
laid before his students a detailed view of the extensive and beneficial effects of
this habitude in the grand economy of nature. From observing the analogy
between the cessation of expansion by the thermometer, during the liquefaction
of the ice, and during thrc conversion of water into steam, Dr Black, baring
explained the one, thought that the phenomena of boilmg and evaporation would
admit of a similar explanation. He was so convinced of the truth of this theory,
that he taught it in his lectures in 17(51, before he liad made a single experi-
ment on the subject At this period, his prelections on the subject of evapora-
tion were of great advantage to Mr James Watt, afterwards so distinguished for
nig application of steam power* His discovery, indeed, may be said to have laid
the foundation of that great practical use of steam t which has conferred so im-
mense a blessing upon the present nge.
In 1766", on Dr Girilen being removed from the chair of chemistry at Edin-
burgh, to that of medicine, Dr Black, as formerly , supplied the vacant place. In
this new scene, he saw that his talents would become more conspicuous, and
of more extensive utility. He was therefore encouraged to devote himself, with
still more enthusiastic zeal, to his duties as a chemical teacher. In this he was
so far successful, that chemistry at length became a fashionable study in the Scot-
tish capital, anil a necessary part of the education of every gentleman. After
this period, however, he retired from the held of chemical resenrrh, winch nnw
began to be occupied by a great number of distinguished philosopbersL The
muse of this was the delicate state of hts health, aided, perhnps, a little by that
indolence, or rather perhaps absence of ambitious motive, which has been already
alluded to. It is to be regretted that, for the same reason, ho can scarcely
be said to have published any tiling to the world, by which bis iliscoveries
might be permanently secured to the honour of bis own name. From the period
of his accession to the chemical chair at Edinburgh, he was, for thirty years, a
most distinguished member of the professional society, which then adorned thu
capital, and has since given such an Augustan eclat to the latter age of the eigh*
teentii century. Wluttever obstruction his health proved in the way of publish-
ing, it never marred the active discharge of bis duties. His coiii'ses became
every year plainer and more familiar, and were attended by a latter number of
pup i k The simplicity and elegance of bis experiments were always much ad-
mired His manner and appearance were peculiarly pleasing. His voice in
lecturing was low and fine, and his articulation so distinct that it una perfectly
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
222 JOHN BLACKADDER.
well heard by a large audience. His discourse was remarkable for plainness and
perspicuity ; all his illustrations, whether by experiment, or by reference to the
processes of nature, were quite apposite ; his hearers rested with the most entire
confidence on his conclusions, and even the most illiterate could not mistake his
sentiments.
Dr Plack's conduct in private life was marked by a striking degree of deco-
rum, without the slightest approach to formality. His habit of studying physical
science rendered him very much a man of facts and demonstrations : he is said
to hare been so entirely destitute of fancy, or to have so effectually repressed
that faculty, that he never was known to utter a joke. In his domestic affairs,
he was rigidly frugal and methodical ; yet his house was open to an enlightened
hospitality, in which he enjoyed as much of the society of his friends as his deli-
fate health would permit His chief friends were Smith, Hume, Carlyle, Home,
and Hutton. The last was closely connected with him in philosophical pursuits,
as well as in the bonds of private friendship — notwithstanding that there were
some striking points of difference between the two men. In the latter days of
Dr Black, he sunk into a low state of health, and only preserved himself from
the shocks of the weather in this variable climate by a degree of care almost fan-
tastic. Thus he spun out the thread of life to the last fibre. It was his gene-
rous and manly wish that he might never live to be a burden to his friends ; and
never was the wish more completely gratified. On the 26th of November, 1799,
and in the seventy-first year of his age, he expired, without any convulsion, shock,
or stupor, to announce or retard the approach of death. Being at table with
his- usual fare-— some bread, a few prunes, and a measured quantity of milk,
diluted with water, and having the cup in his hand when the last stroke of the
pulse was to be given, he had set it down upon his knees, which were joined
together, and kept it steady with his hand in the manner of a person perfectly
at ease, and in this attitude expired, without spilling a drop, and without a
writhe in his countenance ; as if an experiment had been required, to show to
his friends the facility with which he departed. His servant opened the door to
tell him that some one had left his name, but getting no answer, stepped about
half-way towards him, and seeing him sitting in that easy posture, supporting his
basin of milk with one hand, he thought that he had dropped asleep, which he
had sometimes seen happen after his meals. The man went back and shut the
door, but before he got down stairs, some anxiety that he could not account for,
made him return, and look again at his master. Even then, he was satisfied,
after coming pretty near, and turned to go away, but again returned, and com-
ing quite close, found his master without life. Dr Black, who had never been mar-
ried, left more money than any one had thought he could have acquired in the
course of his career. It was disposed of by his will in a manner highly charac-
teristic. Being divided into ten thousand shares, it was parcelled out to a nu-
merous list of relations in shares, in numbers, or fractions of shares, according
to the degree in which they were proper objects of his care or solicitude.
BLACKADDER, John, a distinguished preacher of the time of the persecution,
was the representative of an ancient but decayed family — Blackadder of Tullial-
lan — and was born in the year 1615. He was nephew to principal Strang of
Glasgow, and grand-nephew to the famous chorographer Timothy Font His
theological education took place under the eye of the former of these eminent
men, and having been duly licensed by the presbyterian church, then in its high-
est purity and most triumphant domination, he received a call, in 1652, to the
parish-church of Troqueer, in the neighbourhood of Dumfries. Previous to this
period, he had married the daughter of a wealthy merchant of that town, named
Haning. Mr Blackadder commenced his ministerial labours with a zeal which
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
JOHN BLACKADDER. 223
seems to hare been singular even in those times. He, in the first place, gathered
around him a very active body of elders, whom he set to work in every direc-
tion, upon the task of cultivating the religious mind of the parish. He also instituted
a very strict system of moral discipline among his flockr Not content with the
weekly sermons on Sunday, he instituted lectures on the ordinary days, which were
attended by many persons from a distance. He also projected a plan for occasion-
ally interchanging duty with the neighbouring parochial clergy, which was carried
into effect within the entire limits of the presbytery, and is said to have been
attended with the best results. The church at this time rested undisturbed under
the sway of Cromwell, who gave it toleration in every respect except as a collective
body ; Mr Blackadder, therefore, found no bar to his progress, which was so
exceedingly rapid, that in less than two years he had the satisfaction of seeing a
thorough reformation in the devotional habits of his parishioners, Evil days,
however, came at last In 1662, the episcopal form of church-government was
forced by the restored house of Stuart upon a people who were generally repug-
nant to it Mr Blackadder, so far from complying with the new system, employed
himself for several successive Sundays in exposing what he considered its un-
lawfulness, and, in his own words, " entered his dissent in heaven " against it
The presbytery of Dumfries, upon which the influence of so zealous a mind was
probably very great, gave a positive refusal to an order of the parliament to
celebrate the anniversary of the restoration at a festival. A party of fifty horse
was accordingly sent to bring the whole of this refractory band of churchmen to
Edinburgh. On the day of their arrival at Dumfries, Mr Blackadder was engaged
to preach in the town church. He was entreated not to appear in the pulpit,
lest he should exasperate the soldiers against him ; but instead of taking this
advice, he desired the gallery to be cleared, in order that the military might
attend his sermon. They did so, and listened decorously to the denunciations
which he could not help uttering against all who had been concerned in the late
religious defections. He, and some of his brethren, were next day conducted in an
honourable captivity to the capital, where he underwent some examinations, but
was speedily released, by the interest of his friends. He was now, however,
obliged to demit his charge, in favour of an episcopal incumbent On the last
Sunday of October, he preached a farewell sermon to his attached flock.
u This," we are informed, " was a day of anxious expectation throughout the
country, and made an impression on the minds of those who witnessed it never to
be forgotten. The church of Troqueer stood (as it now does) upon a gentle emi-
nence on the banks of the Nith, commanding an extensive view of the surround-
ing country, which, in the neighbourhood of Dumfries, presents a delightful
variety of local scenery. On the morning of that memorable Sabbath, Mr Black -
adder had risen early from prayer and private communion. He stepped forth
to meditate on the subject of the day. There was a gloom and heaviness in the
atmosphere that seemed to correspond with the general melancholy. A fog, or
thick haze, that covered the face of the earth, as with a grey mantle, had retired
from the vale of Nith towards the mountains. As he paced his little garden
with a slow and pensive step, his contemplations were suddenly interrupted by
the tolling of the morning bells, several of which, in the adjacent parishes, were
distinctly audible from the uncommon stillness of the air. These Hallowed
chimes, once the welcome summons to the house of prayer, now sounded like
the knell of their expiring liberties, reminding him how many of his brethren
were, like himself, preparing to bid their last adieu, amidst the tears and bless-
ings of their people. At this signal of retirement, he betook himself to the du-
ties of the closet, to hold nearer intercourse with heaven, and fortify himself for
the solemn occasion.
W
224: JOHN BLACKADDER.
" The people, at an early hour, had been straggling on the height, but kept
aloof from the church, unwilling to put their minister to hazard by convening in
multitudes, which had been discharged as a breach of peace and good order.
They collected by degrees in small scattered groups about the church-yard, occu-
pied in dark conjectures, and waiting the minister's approach with extreme
anxiety. Mr Dlackadder made his appearance with his wonted firmness and
composure, and with the same placid serenity of countenance for which he was
remarkable. The audience was not numerous, but erery feature appeared set-
tled into a deep and earnest concern. Most of them were dissolved in tears,
and at many parts of the discourse, there were loud and involuntary bursts of
sorrow.
" Towards the middle of the sermon, an alarm was given that a party of sol-
diers from Dumfries were on their march to seize him, and had crossed the
bridge. Upon this he closed hastily, pronounced the blessing, and retired to
his chamber. The military surrounded the church-yard, and, as the people de-
parted, they took down the names of all those who belonged to Dumfries, or any
of the other parishes, as the law had affixed a penalty of twenty shillings Scots
on every person absent from his own church. They offered violence to none,
and went away without entering the manse, being assured that no strangers were
there. When they were gone, the minister assembled the remains of the congre-
gation in his own house, and finished the sermon, ' standing on the stair-head,
both the upper and lower flat being crowded to the full*
" The people seemed very loath to depart, lingering in suspense about the
door, expressing their concern for his safety, and their willingness to shed their
blood in his defence. Mr Blackadder conjured them to have regard to the
peace of the country, and give no handle to their adversaries by any disturbance.
* Go,' said he, and fend [provide] for yourselves : the hour is come when the
shepherd is sjuitten, and the flock shall be scattered. Many are this day mourn-
ing for the desolations of Israel and weeping, like the prophet, between the
porr.h and the attar. God's heritage has become the prey of the spoiler ; the
mountain of the house of the Lord us the high places of the forest. When the
t.iithfu] pastors are removed, hirelings shall intrude, whom the great Shepherd
i ever sent, who will detour the flock, and tread down the residue with their
taet As for me, I have done my doty, and now there is no time to evade. I
recommend you to Him, who is able to keep you from falling, and am ready,
through grace, to be disposed of as the Lord pleases. 1 lT l
After this solemn and affecting scene, Mr lilnrkaddrr wenl, with his wife and
numerous family, to reside at Caitloch in the parish of Glen cairn, a wilder and
more central part of the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. Here he soon attracted
the attention of the authorities by the crowds which ht collected to liear his oc-
tfisional preachings, and he was therefore obliged to remove. For some years
iftcr this period, he appears to have wandered through the country, preaching
whenever he could find a proper opportunity* In 1G70, having performed wor-
ship at a conventicle near Dunfermline, where the people had armed themselves
for self-defence, he was summoned before the privy council, but contrived to
elude their power. When the search was a little slackened, he renewed bb
practice of itinerant preaching, which he not only conceived to be no offence
against human Laws, but a duty solemnly enjoined by the word of God. On one
occasion, he preached at kinkell, near St Andrews: the people flocked from
that metropolitan city to bear him, notwithstanding all the injunctions and sur-
veillance of Archbishop Sharpe. It is said, that, on Sharpe desiring the provost
to send out the militia to disperse the congregation, he was informed that it was
1 Crfchtoji's Lift of John Blackadder, lSmo, 162&
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 225
impossible— the militia had gone already as worshippers. In 1674, he was out-
lawed, and a reward of a thousand merles was offered for his apprehension ; but
he nevertheless continued to preach occasionally to large assemblages in the
fields. What may appear surprising, he often resided in the capital, without
undergoing any annoyance, and contrived, notwithstanding the migratory nature
of his life, to rear a large and well-instructed family. It does not appear that he
approved of the insurrection of his friends, which was suppressed at BothwelL
Though engaged in duty immediately before this event, he fortunately was con-
fined during the whole period of its continuance, by a rheumatism, and therefore
escaped all blame on that account In 1680, he made a voyage to Holland, and
settled his son at Leyden, as a student of medicine ; a circumstance which proves
that the persecution to which these clergymen were subjected was not uniformly
attended by pecuniary destitution. After spending several months in Holland,
he returned to Scotland, and, in the succeeding year, was apprehended* and con-
fined in the state-prison upon the Bass. He remained here for four years, when
at length his health declined so much, on account of the insalubrious nature of
his prison, that his friends made interest to procure his liberation upon the plea
that he must otherwise sink under his malady. The government at first mocked
him with a proposal to transfer him to Haddington or Dunbar .jail, but at length,
on a more earnest and better attested remonstrance, offered to give him liberty to
reside in Edinburgh, under a bond for five thousand merks. Ere this tender
mercy could be made available, he died in his islet prison, December, 1685, hav-
ing nearly completed his seventieth year. John Blackadder lies interred in
North Berwick church-yard, where there is an epitaph to his memory, containing,
among others, the following characteristic lines : —
Grace formed him in the Christian hero's mould ;
Meek in his own concerns— in's Master's bold ;
Passions to reason chained, prudence did lead,
Zeal warmed his breast, and prudence cooled his head.
Five years on this lone rock, yet sweet abode,
He Enoch-like enjoyed and walked with God ;
Till by long-living on his heavenly food,
His soul by love grew up, too great, too good,
To be confined to jail, or flesh, or blood.
BLACKLOCK, Thomas, an ingenious blind poet, was born, November I Oth,
1721, at Annan; his parents were natives of Cumberland, his father a brick-
layer, and his mother the daughter of Mr Richard Rae, an extensive cattle
dealer. Before he was six months old, he lost his sight in the small-pox ; and
was thus rendered incapable of learning a mechanical trade, while the poor cir-
cumstances to which a series of misfortunes had reduced his father, placed equally
beyond his reach an education for any of those professions where the exercise of
the mental faculties is principally required. His affectionate parent seems to
have been aware, however, that the happiness of his son, shut out from so many
of the enjoyments afforded by the external world, must mainly depend upon his
intellectual resources ; and in order to form these, he devoted part of his leisure
hours to such instruction as his poor blind boy was susceptible of — he read to
him, at first the books adapted to the understanding of a child, and afterwards
those fitted for a maturer capacity, such as Milton, Spenser, Prior, Pope, and
Addison. His companions also, who pitied his want of sight, and loved him for
his gentle disposition, lent their assistance in this task of kindness ; and by their
help he acquired some little knowledge of Latin. Thomson and Allan Ramsay
were his favourite authors ; and it was as early as his twelfth year that he evinced
still more decidedly his love of the poetical art by the composition of an ode. ad-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
226 THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
dressed " To a little Girl whom I had offended," — a production not remarkable
solely on account of the future celebrity of its author, but because it displays' at
once his mildness of temper and lively fancy. The argument that shrewishness
spoils a young lady's looks, and ought therefore to be avoided, coming as it does
from a little fellow of twelve to a girl about his own age, is adroitly managed :
" Should but thy fafr companions view
How ill that frown becomes thy brow,
With fear and grief in every eye,
Each would to each, astonished, cry,
Heavens ! where is all her sweetness flown ! —
How strange a figure now she's grown !
Uun, Nancy, let us run, lest we
Grow pettish awkward things as she.*'
Thus early did Blacklock show, that in the course of reading chosen for him,
his father had not mistaken the bent of his inclination. But though, as we have
mentioned, some of Iiis comrades delighted to forward his favourite studies, and,
by their assiduous attentions, to make him forget the deprivation under which
he laboured, there were others who took pleasure in rendering him bitterly con-
scious of his misfortune, and exulted in the success of such practical jokes, as it
was easy to make him the subject of. It is but too obvious that his own experi-
ence at this period* when exposed to the insults of unfeeling boys, suggested the
reflection introduced in the article " Blind," afterwards written by him for the
Encyclopaedia Britanuica: "Parents of middle or of higher rank," he there
remarks, '* who are so unfortunate as to have blind children, ought by all possi-
ble means to keep them out of vulgar company. The herd of mankind have a
wanton malignity which eternally impels them to impose upon the blind, and to
enjoy the painful situations in which these impositions place them. This is a
stricture upon the humanity of our species, which nothing but the love of truth
and the dictates of benevolence could have extorted from us, But we have
known some," he adds, evidently referring to himself, 4< who have suffered so
much from this diabolical mirth in their own persons, that it is natural for us, by
all the means in our power, to prevent others from becoming its victims." The
rory means takeu to alleviate Blacklock's misfortune in some sort increased its
force ; for as his mind expanded, it taught him to feel with greater keenness his
own dependent condition: familiar with some of the noblest flights of genius,
end himself become a poet, he would probably have exchanged all his intellec-
tual stores for the ability of earning his bread by handicraft labour. Lamenting
his blindness, he thus closes an enumeration of the miseries it entailed upon him:
4< Nor end my sorrows here: The sacred fane
Of knowledge,' scarce accessible to me,
With heart-consuming anguish I behold :
Knowledge for which my soul insatiate burns
With ardent thirst. Nor can these useless hand?,
Untutor'd in each life-sustaining ait,
Nourish this wretched being, and supply
Frail nature's wants, that short cessation know."
Alternately depressed by a sense of his own helplessness, and comfotied by
chat piety with which he seems to have been from first to last most deeply im-
bued, Blacklock lived at home till his nineteen th year. A fresh misfortune then
overtook him in the loss of his father, who was crushed to death by the fall of a
n alt-kiln, with eighty bushels of grain upon it, belonging to his son-in-law.
Blacklock's affection for his parents must have exceeded that of other children ;
for that anxious solicitude about his safety and comfort which other boys begin
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BLA.CKLOCK.
227
to forget, when the business of the world removes them from its immediate influ-
ence, had been to him extended over those years when to the helplessness of a
child he added the sense and feelings of a man. To his keenly susceptible
mind this stroke must therefore have been peculiarly afflicting. And it was at-
tended not only with regret on account of remembered benefits, but also by the
anticipation of future evils. A means of livelihood was indeed suggested by
Blacklock's love of music : as he played well on the violin and flute, and even
composed pieces with taste, it was proposed that he should follow this art as a
profession. *' But the unhappy situation in which he was then placed," says the
authority upon which this statement is given, 1 " made him dread consequences
to which he could never reconcile his mind. The very thought that his time
and talents should be prostrated to the forwarding of loose mirth and riot in-
spired him with an honest indignation." Unable to bring down his mind to
this occupation, — the only one which seemed within his reach, — deprived of the
stay on which he had hitherto leaned, blind and feeble, no wonder that the fate
of a houseless beggar sometimes presented itself as what might possibly happen
to himself. Burns occasionally indulged in similar forebodings; but when he
depicts his unhappy fortune, and doggedly exclaims,
"The last o't, the warst o%
Is only but to beg! 11
we must be excused for iron-heartedly recollecting that he was an able-bodied
man, who, as his brother Gilbert records, never met with his match in mowing —
the hardest of all rustic labour. A man so gifted, yet so complaining, meets with
little sympathy, as he is entitled to none : but with poor Blacklock the dread of
dying a houseless wanderer was more than a mere rhetorical flourish or the in-
dulgence of a groundless quemlousness. While we read the lines in which he
unfolds his fears, we perceive that anguish wrung his heart in writing them, and
we know that his situation justified his apprehensions.
" Dejecting prospect ! soon the hapless hour
May come— perhaps this moment it impends—
Which drives me forth to penury and cold,
Naked, and beat by all the storms of heaven,
Friendless and guideless to explore my way ;
Till on cold earth this poor unsheltered head
Reclining, vainly from the ruthless blast
Respite I beg, and in the shock expire."
Although gloomy anticipations like these sometimes intruded, Blacklock did
not permit them to overwhelm him, but calming his fears, and resting with a
pious confidence in the awards of a protecting Providence, he continued to live
with his mother for a year after his father's death.
Some of his poems had by this time got abroad and made him known beyond
his own immediate circle of friends. We shall not pretend to deny that the cir-
cumstance of his blindness had some effect, in addition to the intrinsic merits of
these productions, in making them be sought after and dispersed among literary
persons. On account of their being the verses of a blind poet, they were no
doubt read by many who were little able to appreciate their real excellencies, and
who, having gratified their curiosity, did not concern themselves about the con-
' An article in the Gentleman's Magazine, which, after being read over to Dr Blaclclock,
■lightly altered, and two notes added at his request, was reprinted in the Scots Magazine for
1764. The authority may therefore be considered to be that of Dr Blacklock himself.
From internal evidence it appears very certain, that this article was a contribution to Mr
Urban from his frequent correspondent Dr Johnson.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
22S THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
dition of the author : but still by this means the fame of Blacklock's genius was
extended ; and at last it reached a gentleman, who to curiosity added benevo-
lence of heart. This was Dr John Stevenson, a physician in Edinburgh, who,
while on a professional visit in Dumfries, saw some of our author's pieces, and
resolved to afford the young man's talents the opportunity of expanding in avo-
cations and amid society more congenial to one so much restricted to pleasures
of an intellectual kind. Accordingly Blacklock was, in 1741, induced tore-
move to the metropolis, where he attended a grammar-school for some time, and
afterwards entered as a student in the college, Dr Stevenson supplying him with
the means necessary for the prosecution of his studies. To the friend who thus
so efficaciously patronized him, he afterwards inscribed an imitation of the ode to
Macenas, Hhich occupies the first place in his poems, as it does in those of Horace ;
and that he never forgot the benefits bestowed upon himself is m an i fested by die
ready zeal which his future life at all times displayed for the encouragement of
unnoticed genius.
Blacklock's studies were interrupted by the expedition of (lie Highlanders, in
1745; and during the distractions consequent upon that memorable campaign
he resided in Dumfries with Mr M'Murdo, his brother-in-law. On the re-estab-
lishment of peace, he returned to college, and studied six years more. In this
period he acquired a good knowledge of all those branches of education where
he was not hindered by the want of sight ; and became better skilled than was
common in the French language, from being on habits of intimacy with the
family of provost Alexander, whose wife was a Parisian. It may well inspire
wonder that latterly there was no science with which Blacklock had not made
himself acquainted — no learned language which he did not master — and no mo-
dern tongue, of any acknowledged use to a man of general literature, with which
he was not more or less familiar.
Amid the severer studies of classical learning, philosophy, and theology, his
attachment to poetry was not forgotten. In 1746, a volume of his verses in Svo.
was published at Glasgow. A second edition followed at Edinburgh, in 1754 ;
and two years afterwards, a quarto edition, with an account of his life by Mr
Spence, professor of poetry at Oxford, came out by subscription in London.
In the selection of pieces for the press, Blacklock was by his friends considered
to be over fastidious ; and by persisting to exclude what he himself thought un-
worthy of a place, he greatly limited the size of his books. By the London edi-
tion a considerable sum was realized for the author's advantage. Besides these
editions of his poems, another in 4to. was published in 1793, with a life elegant-
ly written by Henry Mackenzie. They have also been reprinted in the col-
lections of Anderson and Chalmers. Of all these the edition of Dr Anderson,
though not the latest, is the most complete.
Hume the historian was among the friends who early interested themselves in
the fortunes of Blacklock, and was of considerable service in promoting the sub-
scription to the London edition of his poems ; but all intercourse between them
was subsequently broken off. When at a later period Beattie submitted to our
author's judgment his " Essay on the Immutability of Moral Sentiment," and
acquainted him with the more extensive plan of the " Essay on Truth/' stating
that, in the prosecution of that design, he should think it his duty to treat Mr
Hume with freedom, he alluded to that eminent philosopher as u a friend of
yours." This drew from Blacklock a long account of the intercourse between
himself and Hume, from its commencement to its close. The interruption of
their good understanding took place, as Sir William Forbes, who saw the letter
among Beattie's papers, informs us, " through no fault on the part of Dr Black-
lock ;'' but the letter itself has never been published, — which is to be regretted.
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 229
became it might afford some farther insight than we possess into a character
round which Hume has drawn the screen of an impenetrable nutobiogrnphy. It
is also desirable that tlie real circumstances of the connexion should he known,
as it has been the means, in the hands of Hardy, author of the Memoirs of Lord
Charlemont, of th rowing a most disagreeable reflection upon the memory of
Blacklockp This writer affirms that Home conferred upon him the salary which
he derived from an office in the university — meaning, probably, the Advocates'
Library ; while, from the numerous impossibilities and obvious errors of the
statement, it may be pretty confidently assumed, that the whole is destitute of
truth.
The course of study followed by Blacklock at college was thai usually gone
through for the purpose of entering upon the ministry ; but it was not tilt after
the abandonment of a project, (which he began to entertain in 1757 f and from
which he was dissuaded by Mr Hu me, after making considerable preparations to-
ward* it r ) for delivering lectures on oratory, that he finally adopted the resolu-
tion of becoming a clergy man. Having applied himself for some time exclu-
sively to the necessary studies, he was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery
of Dumfries, in 1751). He soon acquired considerable reputation as a pulpit
orator, and took great delight in composing sermons, a considerable number of
which he left behind turn : these it was at one time the intention of his friends
to publish j hut for some reason or Other this has never been done.
The Her. Mr Jameson, Blacklock-s intimate companion, to whom allusion is
more than once made in his poems, has given the following account of his habits
about tins time :
11 His manner of life was so uniform, that the history of it during one day, or
one week, is {he history of it during the seven years that our intercourse lasted,
Heading, music, walking, conversing, and disputing on various topics, in theo-
logy, ethics, &c, employed almost every hour of out time. It was pleasant to
hear him engaged in a dispute ; for no man could keep his temper belter than
he always did on such occasions. I hare known him frequently very warmly
engaged for hours together, but never could observe one angry word to fall from
him. Whatever his antagonist might say, he always kept hi§ temper, — ' sem-
per pamtuSj et refellere sine pertmaeia, et refelli sine iracundia i" He was, how-
ever, extremely sensible to what he thought ill usage, and equally so whcthei
it regarded himself or his friends. But his resentment was always confined to a
few satirical verses, which were generally burnt soon after. The late Mr
Spence (the editor of the 4to. edition of his poems) frequently urged him to write
a tragedy, and assured him that he possessed interest enough with MrGarrick to
get it acted. Various subject* were proposed to him, several of which he ap-
proved, yet be never could be prevailed on to begin any thing of that kind. It
may seem remarkable, but as far as I know, it was invariably the case, that be
never could think or write on any subject proposed to him by another. I have
frequently admired with what readiness and rapidity he could make verses. I
have known him dictate from thirty to forty verses, and by no means bad ones,
as fast as I could write them ; but the moment he was at a loss for a rhyme or a
verse to his liking, he stopt altogether, and could very seldom be induced to
finish what he had begun with so much ardour."
" All those who ever acted as his amanuenses," says Mackenzie, " agree in
this rapidity and ardour of composition which Mr Jameson ascribes to him. He
never could dictate till he stood up ; and as his blindness made walking about
without assistance inconvenient or dangerous to him, he fell insensibly into a
vibratory sort of motion of his body, which increased as he warmed with his
subject, and was pleased with the conceptions of his mind. This motion at last
Digitized by
Google _
230 THOMAS BLaCKLOCK.
became habitual to him ; and though he could sometimes restrain it when on
ceremony, or in any public appearance, such as preaching, he felt a certain un-
easiness from the effort, and always returned to it when he could indulge it with-
out impropriety. This is the appearance which he describes in the ludicroup
picture he has drawn of himself :
'• As some vessel tossed by wind and tide
Bounds o'er the waves, and rocks from side to side,
In just vibration thus 1 always move.'*
Much of the singularity in the gestures of poor Blacklock must have proceed-
ed from his inability to observe the carriage of others, and to regulate his own
in conformity with theirs : a tree will accommodate its growth to the restraint*
imposed upon it, but where a single branch escapes from the artificial training,
flinging itself abroad in all the wild vigour of nature, its tufted luxuriance ap-
pears more striking from the contiguity of a well-clipt and orderly neighbour-
hood. Such was Blacklock's manner: he could not know with how little out-
ward discomposure the world has taught men to accompany the expression of
their emotions ; and with him ardent feeling produced an unrestrained effect
upon the countenance and gestures. 'Die author of Douglas, in one of his let-
ters, has given a curious picture of his singular appearance when under strong
excitement : " 1 went to a companion's," says Home, " and sent for the blind
poet, who is really a strange creature to look at — a small weakly under thing — a
chilly, bloodless animal, that shivers at every breeze. But if nature has cheated
him in one respect, by assigning to his share forceless sinews, and a ragged
form, she has made him ample compensation on the other, by giving him a mind
endued with the most exquisite feelings — the most ardent, kindled-up affections;
a soul, to use a poet's phrase, that's tremblingly alive all over : in short, he is
the most flagrant enthusiast I ever saw ; when he repeats verses, he is not able
to keep his seat, but springs to his feet, and shows his rage by the most animat-
ed motions. He has promised to let me have copies of his best poems, which I
will transmit to you whenever he is as good as his word."
This letter, besides the description of Blacklock's exterior and carriage, opens
to us one source of his acutest sufferings : we have already adverted to die un-
thinking insults to which his blindness exposed him while # a boy, and it appears
but too certain that many who had arrived at manhood in respect of their out.
ward frame, did not treat him with greater tenderness in his maturer years.
They did not, perhaps, decoy him to the edge of a ditch that they might have tlie
satisfaction of seeing him flounder into it, or offer prickles to his grasp that they
might be diverted by the contortions of countenance which the unexpected
wounds occasioned ; but they went to see the blind poet, and induced him to
recite his verses, from the same kind of motive that takes people to witness the
exhibition of a learned pig. Blacklock's position in regard to such visitors was
peculiarly painful : he was in a great measure dependant upon his talents for
support; and to have indignantly refused to display them, would have been to
raise up obstacles to his own success. His feelings were at the same time the
most nicely wrought, and even the triumphs of genius did not afford him perfect,
gratification ; for he knew that his hearers were not carried away by his enthu-
siasm, but listened with a cold and critical attention, noting every peculiarity of
tone, look, and gesture* He has himself told us how exquisitely painful was the
jonsciousness of being the object of such unfeeling curiosity :
'the supercilious eye
Oft, from the noise and glare of prosperous life,
On my obscurity diverts its gaze,
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
•m
Exulting ; and with wanton pride elate
Felicitates its own superior lot:
Inhuman triumph I''
A letter of Blacklock, written from Dumfries about the time when he re-
ceived his licence as a preacher, admits us to a very near view of his remarkable
sensibility of temperament. It does not appear what were the circumstances
alluded to in this letter ; but probably the connexion mentioned as having just
been formed, was a declaration of mutual attachment and promise of marriage
between our poet and his future wife, which he calls ill-fated, on account of his
gloomy prospects, and his regret for having involved one whom he loved in his
own unhappy fortunes. This letter is as follows :
" Dear Sir, — I received your last inclosed to Mr ; and so far as my
situation was capable of being consoled, I was happy in the tenderness and sym-
pathy which you express for me. Beneath those exalted pleasures which we are
taught to expect in an eternal state ; beneath the enjoyment of God himself ; I
know no happiness which deserves the attention of a wise man, but such as we
derive from conscious virtue, benevolence, or friendship. These alone are at
present the cordial drops with which heaven has thought proper to mix my cup
of bitterness. Since every object of my former pursuit eludes my embrace, or
grows insipid by enjoyment, it is time to anticipate such pleasures as are subject
to neither of these misfortunes, and to cultivate a relish for them* Fate and na-
ture tell me that I must quickly make my exit from this present scene ; they never
could send this information to a heart less intimidated by it. I approach the
verge of my present existence, not with the reluctance of inexperienced youth, not
with the horrors of guilt and superstition, but with the cheerfulness of a wearied
traveller, in prospect of the chamber destined for his repose. From this account
it will be easy to judge how much I would prize, or how eagerly pursue any
civil or ecclesiastical employment were it in my power ; but far from being so,
it is beyond my remotest hopes ; — all access to every resource whence these ad-
vantages are derived is denied to me. I have neither power nor influence in life,
and am consequently incapable of interesting any who have it. There are evils
which may be suffered without mortification ; yet, let me confess it, there are
others which I cannot think of without being melted to infantine weakness. In
my former 1 told you that I had projected one last resource, and made one las!
elibrt for happiness : had I then foreseen the weakness of my constitution, and
the unhappiness of my circumstances, sooner would I have run any hazard which
this or any future scene can present, than have ventured to form such an ill-fated
connexion. It is true that these who are interested in me, persuaded either by my
looks, or the present degree of strength which I seem to possess, flatter themselves,
or are willing to flatter me, that my present indisposition will not prove decisive ;
such is the opinion of the lady formerly mentioned. I have endeavoured to im-
press her with contrary sentiments, that the friendship between us might be
dissolved without tearing -. but I had reason to lament my success ; for in pro-
portion to her sense of my danger, which, after my return from Edinburgh, was
pretty high, her whole manner, not to me only, but to all her other friends,
appeared expressive of dejection and misery. I had not resolution to continue
my former plan, but used every possible argument to persuade her of my return-
ing health ; and though conscious of acting a wrong part in this, I have not suf-
ficient strength of mind to act a right one. This is my present situation of mind :
1 know it is what I ought not to have discovered to one of your humanity, nor
can I pretend any other apology, but that I apply to the last and most natural
resource of wretchedness, the sympathy of a friend. It is all I ask ; it is all I
hope ; and it is what I am sure to obtain. Fray, tell me whether your bro-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
232 THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
ther prosecutes the same business with you, or whether friends in the country
may not have it in their power to serve him ? The precaution in my former
concerning the balance of accounts between us was not taken from any fear of
its appearing against my relations, but that you might recover it with greater
ease from myself during mine own life. Once more I must ask pardon for the
length and subject of this letter ; but if you continue to favour me as a corres-
pondent, my future answers shall be less tedious and more cheerful. As you are
now more disengaged from secular business, the demands of your friends to hear
from you will proportionably increase ; and as you have now long taught me to
think myself of that number, I can no more resign the claim which it gives than
the tenderness which it inspires, — a tenderness which shall ever be felt in the
highest degree, by your most sincere friend, and humble servant,
" Dumfries, 15th April, 1759. Thomas Bi*ckxoc*. w
In 1762, the Earl of Selkirk procured from the Crown a presentation to the
parish of Kirkcudbright in favour of Mr Blacklock ; who, having thus the pros-
pect of a competent income, married Mrs Sarah Johnston, daughter of Mr
Joseph Johnston, surgeon in Dumfries. But though not disappointed in the
happiness he expected to derive from this union, the gleam of fortune which
seems to have induced him to form it, forsook him immediately after the step
was taken. He was ordained a few days after his marriage ; but the people of
the parish refused, on account of his blindness, to acknowledge him as their
pastor, and a lawsuit was commenced, which, after two years, was compromised
by Blacklock retiring upon a moderate annuity. From the first moment of op-
position, it had been his wish to make this arrangement, not from any conviction
of incompetency to the duties of a parish minister, but because he saw it was
needless to contend against a prejudice so-strongly maintained. " Civil and eccle-
siastical employments," he says, " have something either in their own nature, or
in the invincible prejudices of mankind, which renders them almost entirely in-
accessible to those who have lost the use of sight No liberal and cultivated
mind can entertain the least hesitation in concluding that there is nothing, either
in the nature of things, or even in the positive institutions of genuine religion,
repugnant to the idea of a blind clergyman. But the novelty of the phenome-
non, while it astonishes vulgar and contracted understandings, inflames theii
zeal to rage and madness. " His own experience, it is evident, suggested this
observation. Blindness is certainly not in itself a sufficient reason for debarring
those afflicted with it from the ministerial office ; it does not incapacitate a man
for the acquirement of the requisite knowledge, nor exclude from his bosom the
glow of holy zeal. On the contrary, worldly cares and ambition are not so ap-
to intrude. " The attention of the soul, confined to those avenues of perception
which she can command, is neither dissipated nor confounded by the immense
multiplicity, or the rapid succession of surrounding objects. Hence Mr con-
templations are more uniformly fixed upon herself, and the revolution of her
own internal frame, 9 ' ' and hence a greater fitness in her for the growth of de-
votion. The want of sight would, indeed, put inconveniences in the way of a
clergyman's intercourse with his parishioners, but they are small ; and it is not
easy to conceive any thing more affecting and impressive than for those in the
full enjoyment of their faculties to hear lessons of submission to the divine will,
and of gratitude for the blessings of providence, from the mouth of one upon
whom the hand of God has been laid. Such were not, however, the opinions of
those with whom Blacklock had to deal ; and he acquiesced. This effort could
not but be painful ; the sense of exclusion from all the business of life had long
oppressed him, and the moment that patronage was extended towards him, and
i Knryclopsdia Bri tannic*, article Blind, § 10.
J
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 233 I
I
opened the prospect of public usefulness, he was assailed by a persecution, which
rejected him as incompetent to the duties for which other men are fit, and drove
him back to his former state of dependence and seclusion. It is probably to
the period when he experienced so determined an opposition from the people oi
Kirkcudbright, that we are to refer the composition of his Paraclesis; for he
informs us in the preface that his motire for writing that work was " to alleviate
the pressure of repeated disappointments, to soothe his anguish for the loss of
departed friends, to elude the rage of implacable and unprovoked enemies, in
a word, to support his own mind, which, for a number of years, besides its lite-
rary difficulties and its natural disadvantages, had maintained an incessant con-
ilia with fortune." At no other period but that above referred to, are we
aware that Blacklock was the object of any thing like an angry feeling.
On the day of Mr Blacklock's ordination was afforded, in his person, an in-
stance of sleep-walking, perhaps the most remarkable and complicated on record.
As such the reader may be pleased to see an account of it as it is preserved
in Dr Cleghorn's thesis De Sornno, which was published in Blacklock's own life-
time (in 1783). The facts were authenticated by Mrs Blacklock, Mr Gilbert
Gordon, 2 and a numerous party of friends who dined with him at the inn of
Kirkcudbright on the occasion in question. " Harassed by the censures of the
populace," says Dr Gleghorn, "whereby not only his reputation, but his very
subsistence was endangered, and fatigued with mental exertion, Blacklock fell
asleep after dinner. Some hours afterwards he was called by a friend, answered
his salutation, rose and went into the dining-room, where his friends were met.
He joined with two of them in a concert, singing tastefully as usual, and without
missing a word. He ate an egg to supper, and drank some wine, and other
liquors, His friends, however, observed him to be a little absent By and bye
he began to speak to himself; but in so low a tone, and so confusedly, as to be
unintelligible. At last, being pretty forcibly roused, he awoke with a sudden start,
unconscious of all that had happened." We have no example of a person in
ileep performing so many of the functions of one awake, and in so exact a man-
ner, as Blacklock is here stated to have done. He spoke, walked, sung, took
wine, and must have observed with accuracy many of the little courtesies of so-
cial life ; for his friends did not suspect that he was asleep till he began to talk
to himself. The time, however, was convenient for so unusual an exhibition ;
and perhaps many other somnambulists would join in the occupations or amuse-
ments of those around them, if the world were astir when they make their rounds.
Circumstances, however, are quite different in ordinary cases ; the person gets
up when all others are at rest, and performs one or two acts, to which his half-
awakened fancy impels him, without being involved, as it were, in any current
of events extraneous to himself, which, by the habit of association, might have
led him on to other mechanical exertions of the mental or bodily faculties ; thus
the original excitement, receiving no casual addition, soon expends itself, and
allows him to relapse into slumber. Blacklock, on the contrary, when partially
roused, found the business of life in progress, and was drawn on from one act to
another in the usual course, no excitement occurring strong enough wholly to
burst the bonds of sleep. This intermediate state between sleeping and waking,
when part of the faculties are alert and active, and the other part entirely dor-
mant, may be approached from either confine ; and whether from sleeping we
become half awake, or from waking fall half asleep, the effects are strikingly si-
milar. Many instances of what is called absence, or reverie, disclose phenomena
equally surprising with those of somnambulism ; and a comparison between them
* Author of the Short Account of tbe Life and Writings of Blacklock, prefixed to the
second edition of his poems, 1754. s Q
gitized by
Google
234 THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
would probably afford the best meant of explaining both. A contemporary of
Blacklock, the author of the " Wealth of Nations,' 9 was in the habit, when awake,
of doing things as unaccountable as the blind poet is above stated to have done
when asleep.
In 1764, after the connexion between him and the parish of Kirkcudbright
was dissolved in the manner we have mentioned, Blacklock removed to Edin-
burgh, where he received boarders into his house, 2 superintending the studies of
those who chose to have such assistance. " In this occupation," says Mackenzie,
" no teacher was perhaps ever more agreeable to his pupils, nor master of a
family to its inmates, than Dr Blacklock. The gentleness of his manners, the
benignity of his disposition, and that warm interest in the happiness of others
which led him so constantly to promote it, were qualities that could not fail to
procure him the love and regard of the young people committed to his charge ;
while the society which esteem and respect for his character and his genius
often assembled at his house, afforded them an advantage rarely to be found in
establishments of a similar kind. The writer of this account has frequently been
a witness of the family scene at Dr Blacklock's ; has seen the good man amidst
the circle of his young friends, eager to do him all the little offices of kindness
which he seemed so much to merit and to feeL In this society he appeared en-
tirely to forget the privation of sight, and the melancholy which, at other times,
it might produce. He entered with the cheerful playfulness of a young man in-
to all the sprightly narrative, the sportful fancy, the humorous jest, that rose
around him. It was a sight highly gratifying to philanthropy to see how much
a mind endowed with knowledge, kindled by genius, and above all, lighted up
with innocence and piety, like Blacklock*s, could overcome the weight of its own
calamity, and enjoy the content, the happiness, the gaiety of others. Several of
those inmates of Dr Blacklock's house retained, in future life, all the warmth of
that impression which his friendship at this early period had made upon them ;
and in various quarters of the world he had friends and correspondents from
whom no length of time, or distance of place, had ever estranged him."
In these hours of social relaxation, Blacklock found one of the greatest plea-
sures of his existence. Music also afforded him a lively gratification ; for he
&ung with taste, and performed tolerably well on several instruments, particularly
on the flute. He had learned to play on the flageolet in consequence of a
dream in which he supposed himself to listen to the most enchanting melody,
produced by a shepherd on a hillside from that instrument ; and he always car-
ried one in his pocket, on which he was by no means averse from being asked to
perform, — " a natural feeling," says Mackenzie, " for a blind man, who thus
adds a scene to the drama of his society." We have already alluded to his skill
in composition, which was begun early at least, if it was not very assiduously
cultivated. There is a specimen of his abilities in this way in the Edinburgh
Magazine and Renew for 1774, under the title of " Absence, a Pastoral, set to
music, by Dr Blacklock."
Blacklock's friendship with Beattie commenced about a year after his return
from Kirkcudbright to Edinburgh. The first letter from the opponent of Hume,
dated in 1765, expresses satisfaction that the present of a copy of our author's
poems had at last afforded the opportunity of establishing an acquaintance. The
correspondence was for some time kept up with great regularity by Beattie, who
when the composition of the "Minstrel 9 * had not advanced beyond a few
stanzas, explained his plan to the blind bard. The progress of a work of still greater
importance was confided to Blacklock. The "Essay on the Immutability of
8 He occupied the two upper flats of a house at the west end of West Nicolson Street,
looking towards St Cuthbert's Chapel of Ease burying ground.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 235
Moral Sentiment " having been perused and approved by him, the more exten-
sive plan and object of the " Essay on Truth " was also disclosed ; and that he
was pleased with the design, and encouraged the author to proceed, may be un-
derstood from what afterwards took place : on the publication of the work, it
was thought necessary, by Seattle's friends, that an analysis of it, giving a brief
and popular view of the manner in which the subject was treated, should be in-
serted in the newspapers; and "this task/' Sir William Forbes says, " Dr
Blacklock undertook, and executed 1 with much ability. 9 ' On Blacklock's part
this literary intercourse was cultivated by allowing Beattie the perusal of a
translation of the " Cenie" of D'Happoncourt de Grafigny, which he had made
under the title of "Seraphina." This play was not intended to be either
printed or brought on the stage ; but the translator appears to have been under
'ome apprehensions, in consequence of the proceedings in regard to " Douglas,"
that, if his having engaged in such a work should come to be known, it might
draw usjbn him the censure of the church courts, or at least, of the more rigid
ecclesiastics. We find Dr Beattie exhorting him not to be afraid of meeting
with Mr Home's treatment ; for that " to translate a dramatic poem could never
be made to be on a footing with composing one and bringing it on the stage."
This is but indifferent logic, wo are afraid, and marvellously resembles that of
cevtain schoolboys, who, ambitious of rendering their discourse more emphatic by
the admixture of oaths, yet dreading to swear the common English kind, think
themselves secure in adopting a few out of the learned languages, or in spelling if
they do not pronounce them. Whether Blacklock was satisfied with his friend s
reasoning, or if he took a different view of the case, and considered that, though
there might be some risk, there was no harm in the dramatic form of composi-
tion, does not appear; but he ventured beyond translation, and actually wrote a
tragedy, of which, however, the subject and merits are alike unknown, as it had
been put into the hands of Mr Andrew Crosbie, advocate, and could never be
recovered. It is probable that the suggestion of Dr Beattie procured for our
author from the college of Aberdeen the degree of D. D. in 1767. After the
publication of the " Essay on Truth" and of the " Minstrel" had introduced
him to a literary acquaintance much more extensive than be previously enjoyed,
we do not find that Beattie cultivated Blacklock's correspondence with the same
assiduity as before ; but he never ceased to love and respect him, which is mani-
fested by the epitaph which the afflictions of his own later years did not prevent
him from writing for his friend.
Finding that his increasing years and infirmities required repose, Dr Black-
lock discontinued the keeping of boarders in 1787. But though his bodily
vigour began to fail, he experienced no diminution of that benevolence which
had ever characterised him. His own genius having been greatly indebted to
patronage, he was ever ready to acknowledge it in others, and especially to cul-
tivate and bring it into reputation where he found it struggling with obscurity.
Nor were his efforts for this purpose confined to occasional acts of liberality—
they were laborious and long-continued. He had taken a boy from a village
near Carlisle to lead him, and perceiving in the youth a willingness to learn,
taught him Latin, Greek, and French, and having thus fitted him for a station
superior to that in which he was born, procured for him the situation of secre-
tary to Lord Milton, who was chief active manager of state affairs in Scotland for
many years. This young man was Richard Hewitt, known to the admirer of
Scottish song as the author of " Roslin Castle." Hewitt testified his gratitude
to his instructor by a copy of complimentary verses, in every line of which may
be traced the chief excellence of compositions of that description — sincerity ;
* Edinburgh Evening G'ourant, 8d June, 1770.
Digitized by
Google
238 THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
but lie did not long enjoy his change of fortune, having died in 1764 from tin*
fatigue of the office to which he had been derated
But we find a still more eminent example of Blacklock's solicitude to pro-
mote the interests of the sons of genius, in his being the first man among the
literary circles of Edinburgh who appreciated the poetry of Burns, (perhaps, in-
deed, because he had the earliest opportunity of becoming acquainted with it,)
and kindled in the author the ambition of a prize beyond that of provincial
fame. The Rev. Mr Lawrie of Newmills had transmitted to Blacklock a copy of
the Kilmarnock edition of Burns' poems. It is not easy for a modern reader to
understand with what wonder and delight Blacklock must have perused them.
In our time, the pleasure felt from his most perfect pieces is damped by the re-
collection of their author's melancholy fate. What reflecting mind can turn
from the perusal of the " Mountain Daisy » with any other feeling than one of
sorrow that Burns was not a better and a happier man ? But while his career
was yet to run, with what enviable anticipations must such a perusal have inspired
a generous heart ! Here was poetry the purest and most genuine : he who pro-
duced it was of no note ; but to what a high place in his country's esteem might
he not rise ! The world was then all before him, and he capable of attaining
whatever fame the most ardent imagination could desire. With calmness, yet
with energy, the enthusiastic Blacklock indicated his own admiration and the
certainty of the poet's future fame : — " many instances," he wrote to Mr Lawrie.
" have I seen of nature's force and beneficence exerted under numerous and
formidable disadvantages; but none equal to that with which you have been
kind enough to present me. There is a pathos and delicacy in his serious poems,
a vein of wit and humour in those of a more festive turn, which cannot be too
much admired nor too warmly approved. I think I shall never open the book
without feeling my astonishment renewed and increased. — It were much to be
wished, for the sake of the young man, that a second edition, more numerous
than the former, could immediately be printed ; as it appears certain that its in-
trinsic merit, and the exertion of the author's friends, might give it a more uni-
versal circulation than any thing of the kind which has been published within
my memory." — " I had taken the last farewell of my few friends," says Burns;
" my chest was on the roa4 to Greenock ; I had composed the last song I should
ever measure in Scotland — * The Gloomy night is gathering fast ' — when a letter
from Dr Blacklock to a friend of mine overthrew all my schemes, by opening
new prospects to my poetic ambition. The Doctor belonged to a set of critics
for whose applause I had not dared to hope. His opinion that I would meet
with encouragement in Edinburgh for a second edition, fired me so much, that
away I posted for that city, without a single acquaintance, or a single letter of
introduction." — " Blacklock received him," says Dr Currie, " with all the ar
dour of affectionate admiration ; he eagerly introduced him to the respectable
circle of his friends ; he consulted his interest ; he emblazoned his fame ; he
lavished upon him all the kindness of a generous and feeling heart, into which
nothing selfish or envious ever found admittance." — " In Dr Blacklock," Burns
himself writes to Mr Lawrie, *' In Dr Blacklock, whom I see very often, I have
found what I would have expected in our friend, — a clear head and an excellent
heart" It is not our business, in this place, to trace Burns's career farther.
Dr Blacklock's duty towards him was performed, when he had bestowed upon
him every mark of private regard, and consigned him to the care of more influ-
ential patrons. After Burns retired to the country, some letters passed between
them, which, on Dr Blacklock's part, show how very poorly a remarkably sensible
man could write when he had little to say, and thought to compensate for the
meagreness of his subject by elevating it into rhyme.
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 237
Besides the miscellaneous poems by which Dr Blacklock is best known as an
author, he published several other works. In 1756 he gave to the world an
" Essay towards Universal Etymology ;» in 1760, " The Right Improvement of
Time, a Sermon ;» in the ensuing year another sermon, entitled " Faith, Hope,
aiid Charity compared." In 1767 appeared his " Paraclesis ; or Consolations
deduced from Natural and Revealed Religion," in two dissertations, the first
supposed to be Cicero's, translated by Dr Blacklock, — the other written by him-
self. This work, to use the author's own touching words, " was begun and pur-
sued by its author, to divert wakeful and melancholy hours, which the recollec-
tion of past misfortunes, and the sense of present inconveniences, would other-
wise have severely embittered." He endeavours, but without success, to prove
the authenticity of the dissertation ascribed to Cicero, which he has translated
with fidelity and elegance : the object of the original discourse is to prove the
superiority of the consolations afforded by revealed religion. In 1768, he
printed u Two Discourses on the Spirit and Evidences of Christianity," trans-
lated from the French of Mr James Armand. To this work he prefixed a long
dedication to the 'Moderator of the General Assembly. In 1773 appeared his
•' Panegyric on Great Britain," which shows him to have possessed considerable
talents for satire had he chosen to pursue that species of writing. His last pro-
duction was in 1774, " The Graham, an Heroic Ballad, in Four Cantos ;» in-
tended to promote a good understanding between die natives of England and
Scotland. He contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in 1783, the article
Blind — a little treatise of peculiar interest, which we have had occasion to
quote in the present account of its author. He is also said to have written the
Essay on Poetry, and others on various subjects in the same work. Dr Black-
lock left behind him in manuscript some volumes of sermons, and a Treatise on
Morals.
In his latter years our author was occasionally afflicted with deafness — in his
case a double calamity, as at the periods when it visited him, he was in a manner
shut out from all communication with the external world. In tin's forlorn con-
dition — old, blind, and sometimes deaf — it was more difficult for him than for-
merly to bear up against the depression of spirits to which he had always been
more or less subject; but his gentleness of temper never forsook him, and
though he could not altogether avoid complaint, he was not loath to discover
and state some alleviating circumstance along with it He died from fever after
a week's illness, on the 7th July, 1791, and was buried in the ground of St
Cuihbert's Chapel of Ease, where there is a tombstone erected, with the follow-
ing inscription by Dr Beattie : — •• Viro Reverendo Thomas Blacklock, D. D. 1
Probo, Pio, Benevolo, Omnigena Doctrina Erudito, Poetae sublimi; ab incunabu-
lis usque oculis capto, at hilari, faceto, amicisque semper carissimo ; qui natus
xxi Novemb. mdccxx. obiit vn Julii, mdccxcx: Hoc Monumentum Vidua ejus Sail
Johnston, mxrrens P."
It has been said of Dr Blacklock that " he never lost a friend, nor made a
foe ;" and perhaps no literary man ever passed through life so perfectly free
from envious feeling, and so entirely respected and beloved. His conversa-
tion was lively and entertaining ; his wit was acknowledged, but it had no tinge
of malice ; his temper was gentle, his feelings warm — intense ; his whole cha-
racter was one to which may be applied the epithet amiable, without any quali-
fication. We do not deny him the merit of this ; but he was placed in circum-
stances favourable for the development of such a character: his blindness,
together with his genius, prepossessed all in his favour, and procured him many
1 The classical reader will easily detect a fault here— Divinitatis Doctor' which, it may be
remarked, was also committed on one occasion by Dr Adam.
Digitized by
Google ^
238 THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
warm friends; while he was nerer in hazard of creating enemies, because, being
incapacitated for any of the more active pursuits of life, his interests did not
come into collison with those of any other aspirant in a similar path. He war
thus enabled to " lire pleasant," as far as his intercourse with the world was con-
cerned. In his own mind, he did not at all times enjoy the cheerfulness which his
excellent temper and his piety might seem to promisa ; he laboured under a de
pression of spirits, which grew upon him, as the buoyancy of youth and the energy
of manhood declined. When we consider how much more we are liable to super-
stitious fears and alarms of every kind during the night than in the day, it does
not appear surprising, that those condemned to ceaseless darkness should find it
impossible to subdue their sense of loneliness and destitution. No variety of
visible objects, no beauty of colour or grace of motion, ever diverts the mind
of the blind man from brooding over its own phantasraata ; the ear may be said
to be the only inlet by which he can receive cheering ideas, and hence, when
companionless, he becomes liable to the intrusion of doubts and dreads in an
endless train. The bodily inactivity to which the want of sight compels him-
and his exclusion from business, unhappily promote the same morbid sensibility ;
and though society may afford him many gleams of delight, the long hours of so-
litude bring back the prevailing gloom. From this disease of the mind, Dr
Blacklock's varied stores of acquired knowledge, the native sweetness of his tem-
per, and the tender cares of an affectionate wife, could not preserve him. It
might be the cause of uneasiness to himself however, but never influenced his
behaviour to others; it made him melancholy, but. not morose. Even they
who look upon it as being, in ordinary instances, a fantastic and blaiueable
weakness, must pity the present sufferer, in whom so many causes concurred to
render it irresistible.
To Dr Blacklock as a poet, the rank of first-rate excellence has not been as-
signed, and is not claimed; but his works posses » solid merits, which will al-
ways repay a perusal The thoughts are, for the most part, vigorous, seldom less
than just ; and they are conveyed with a certain intensity of expression, which
shows them, even when not uncommon in themselves, to be the oflspring of a
superior genius. As the productions of a blind man, they present a study of the
very highest interest, and have frequently been viewed as a problem in the
science of mind. The author himself seems to have been not unwilling to invest
them with a certain character of mystery : " It is possible, 9 ' he says, " for the
blind, by a retentive memory, to tell you, that the sky is an azure ; that the sun,
moon, and stars, are bright ; that the rose is red, the lily white or yellow, and
the tulip variegated. By continually hearing these substantives and adjectives
joined, he may be mechanically taught to join them in the same manner ; but as
he never had any sensation of colour, however accurately he may speak of
coloured objects, his language must be like that of a parrot, — without meaning,
or without ideas. Homer, Milton, and Ossian, had been long acquainted with
the visible world before they were surrounded with clouds and ever-during dark-
ness. They might, therefore, still retain the warm and pleasing impressions of
what they had seen. Their descriptions might be animated with all the rapture
and enthusiasm which originally fired their bosoms when the grand or delight-
ful objects which they delineated were immediately beheld. Nay, that enthusiasm
might still be heightened by a bitter sense of their loss, and by that regret which
a situation so dismal might naturally inspire. But how shall we account for the
same energy, the same transport of description, exhibited by those on whose
minds visible objects were either never impressed, or have been entirely obliter-
ated ? Yet, however unaccountable this fact may appear, it is no less certain
than extraordinary. But delicacy, and other particular circumstances, forbid us
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 239
to enter into this disquisition with that minuteness and precision which it re-
quires."
" Mr Spence observes," says the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1 " that
Blacklock's notion of day may comprehend the ideas of warmth, variety ot
sounds, society, and cheerfulness ; and his notion of night, the contrary ideas ot
dullness, silence, solitude, melancholy, and, occasionally, even of horror: that
he substitutes the idea of glory for that of the sun ; and of glory in a less de-
gree for those of the moon and stars : that his idea of the beams of the sun may
be composed of this idea of glory, and that of rapidity : that something of soli-
dity, too, may perhaps be admitted both into his idea of light and darkness ;
but that what his idea of glory is, cannot be determined. Mr Spence also re-
marks, that Mr Blacklock may attribute paleness to grie( brightness to the eyes,
cheerfulness to green, and a glow to gems and roses, without any determinate ideas ;
as boys at school, when, in their distress for a word to lengthen out a verse, they
find purpureus alar, or pwrprtrevm mare, may afterwards use the epithet purpu-
rea with propriety, though they know not what it means, and have never seen
either a swan or the sea, or heard that the swan is of a light, and the sea of a
dark colour. But he supposes, too, that Mr Blacklock may have been able to
distinguish colours by his touch, and to have made a new vocabulary to himself,
by substituting tangible for visible differences, and giving them the same names ;
so that green, with him, may seem something pleasing or soft to the touch, and
red, something displeasing or rough. In defence of this supposition, it has been
said, with some plausibility, that the same disposition of parts in the surfaces of
1 We have already stated our belief that this writer was Dr Johnson. Besides the evi-
dence which the passages quoted in the text afford, there is much of the spirit of Johnson
en the summary of Blacklock's personal character: "This gentleman has one excellence
which outvalues all genius, and all learning— he is truly and eminently a good man. He
possesses great abilities with modesty, and wants almott every thing else with content. 91 The pro-
bability is farther heightened by the kindness which Johnson manifested to Blacklock when
he visited Scotland. On being introduced at Mr Boswell's, the English moralist u received
him with a most humane complacency— ■' Dear Dr Blacklock, 1 am glad to see you!'"
Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides. We are also told by Mr Bos well, that Dr Johnson, on his re-
turn from the Western Islands, breakfasted once at Dr Blacklock's house. We esteem the ver-
bal criticism in the article we have just spoken of, as equally characteristic of the illustrious
lexicographer: " Some passages," it is remarked, "appear to have something wrong in them
at the first view, but upon a more accurate inspection, are found to be right, or at least only
to be wrong as they reflect the faults of others. In these verses,
1 What cave profound, what star sublime,
Shall hide me from thy boundless view/
there seems to be an improper connexion of ideas ; but the impropriety is in a great degree
of our own making. We nave joined ideas which Mr Blacklock, without any absurdity,
nas here separated. We have associated the idea of darkness with that of profundity; and
can separate good men from the love of God ; neither, says Mr Blacklock, can height or
depth conceal any being from his sight And that he did not here suppose concealment the
eflect of obscurity, appears plainly from the epithet boundless, which he has given to that
view which he supposes to comprehend all height and depth, or, in other words, universal
space. It must, however, be granted, that as height and depth are relative to a middle
point, tiiere is no proportion between the depth of a cave and the height of a star.
" There is certainly a mistake in the last line of this couplet :
* So fools their flocks to sanguine wolves resign,
So trust the cunning fox to prune the vine. 1
But Into this mistake he was perhaps led by the impropriety of the common fable of the fox
and grapes, which we frequently quote, without reflecting that an inordinate love of grapes
is falsely attributed to that animal: when the fox could not reach the grapes, he said they
were sour. Blacklock explained this latter passage by saying,.* 4 that he alluded to that well-
known passage of the Scripture: « Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vires;
for our vines have tender grapes.» Cant. ii. 15."
gitized by G00g[e
240
THOMAS BLACKLOCK.
bodies, which makes ttiein reflect different rays of light, may make diem feel as
differently to the exquisite touch of a blind man. But there is so much differ-
ence in the tangible qualities of things of the same colour, so much roughness and
smoothness, harshness and softness, arising from other causes, that it is more dif-
ficult to conceive how that minute degree arising from colour should be distin-
guished, than how a blind man should talk sensibly on the subject without having
made such distinction. We cannot conceive how a piece of red velvet, woollen
cloth, camblet, silk, and painted canvass, should have something in common,
which can be distinguished by the touch, through the greatest difference in all
qualities which the touch can discover ; or in what mode green buckram should
be more soft and pleasing to the touch than red velvet If the softness peculiar
to green be distinguished in the buckram, and the harshness peculiar to red in
the velvet, it must be by some quality with which the rest of mankind are as
little acquainted as the blind with colour. It may perhaps be said, that a blind
man is supposed to distinguish colours by his touch, only when all things are equal
But if this be admitted, it would as much violate the order of his ideas to call
velvet red, as to call softness harsh, or, indeed, to call green red ; velvet being
somewhat soft and pleasing to the touch, and somewhat soft and pleasing to the
touch being his idea of green. »
The acuteness of these remarks leaves us to regret that the author eluded the
discussion of the most difficult part of the subject, and fixed upon that concern-
ing which there is no dispute : Blacklock himself acknowledged what is here
said about distinguishing colours by the touch, to be trite as far as he was con-
cerned, that being a nicety of perception which, though reported to be possessed
by others, he in vain endeavoured to attain. " We have known a person," he
says, in his article on Blindness, " who lost the use of his sight at an early pe-
riod of infancy, who, in the vivacity or delicacy of his sensations, was not, per-
haps, inferior to any one, and who had often heard of others in his own situation
capable of distinguishing colours by touch with the utmost exactness and promp-
titude. Stimulated, therefore, partly by curiosity, to acquire a new train of
ideas, if that acquisition were possible, but still more by incredulity with respect
to the facts related, he tried repeated experiments by touching the surfaces of
different bodies, and examining whether any such diversities could be found in
them as might enable him to distinguish colours ; but no such diversity could he
ever ascertain. Sometimes, indeed, he imagined that objects which had no co-
lour, or, in other words, such as were black, were somewhat different and
peculiar iu their surfaces ; but this experiment did not always, nor universally
hold."
But even supposing Dr Blacklock to have possessed the power of distinguish-
ing colours by the touch, and that by handling the coat which he wore he could
have told whether it was blue or black, the stock of ideas that he might thereby
have obtained, would have contributed little to fit him for describing external
nature. He could have formed no conception of a landscape from the repre-
sentation of it on canvass, which, at the most, could only convey the idea of a
plain surface covered with a variety of spots, some of which were smoother and
more pleasant to the touch than others. The pomp of groves and garniture of
fields would never have been disclosed to his yearning fancy by so slow and im-
perfect a process. Nor could his notions of scenery be much improved by what-
ever other conventional method he endeavoured to form them. Granting that
he framed his idea of the sun upon the model of that of glory, it was still but an
abstract idea, and could bring him no nearer to a distinct apprehension of the
splendour with which light covers the face of the earth ; nor could his idea of
gitized by G00gle
ALEXANDER and ELIZABETH BLACKWELL. 241
the obscuration of glory enable him to understand the real nature of the appear-
ances he describes when he says —
" Clouds peep on clouds, and as they rise,
Condense to solid gloom die skies. *'
All these suppositions fail to afford a solution of the difficulty concerning the
nature of his ideas of visible objects. In order to arrive at the proper explana-
tion, let us inquire whence he derived them : that the sky is blue and the fields
green, he could only learn from the descriptions of others. What he learned
from others he might combine variously, and by long familiarity with the use oi
words, he might do so correctly, but it was from memory alone that he drew his
materials. Imagination could not heighten his pictures by stores of any kind
but those supplied by his recollection of books. We wonder, indeed, at the ac-
curate arrangement of the different parts in his delineations, and that he should
ever have been led to peruse what he could not by any possibility understand —
how, for instance, he should have studied with ardour and delight such a work
as the " Seasons," the appreciation of whose beauties one would suppose to depend
almost entirely on an acquaintance with the visible forms of creation. But
when we consider how deeply he must have regTetted the want of the most de-
lightful of our senses, it will appear most natural, that he should strive by every
means to repair the deficiency, and to be admitted to some share of the pleasure
which he had heard that sight conveys. From his constant endeavours to ar-
rive at some knowledge of the nature of visible objects, he obtained a full com-
mand of the language proper to them ; and the correct application of what he
thus learned, is all that can be claimed for the descriptive parts of his poetry.
These never present any picture absolutely original, however pleasing it may be,
and however much it may enhance the effect of the sentiment it is introduced to
assist
Besides the earlier notices of Mr Gilbert Gordon, of Spence, find, we may
add, of Johnson, Blacklock's life has been written by Mackenzie with great
elegance, by Chalmers, and by Dr Anderson. The List biographer mentions
that " some memoirs of his life, written by himself, are now (1795) in the pos-
session of Dr Beattie." It is not improbable that this statement refers merely to
the " long letter" from Blacklock to Beattie, already alluded to. If other do-
cuments of this kind were in the hands of the latter in 1795, as he had not
thought proper to communicate them to any of Dr Blacklock's biographers, the
probability is, that he would have retained them till his death, and that they Would
have appeared among his papers. Sir William Forbes, however, makes no mention
of any such discovery ; although, besides frequent allusions to him in the course
of the life of Dr Beattie, he has, in the appendix to that work, given a brief
sketch of that of Dr Blacklock. If such memoirs are, nevertheless, in existence,
and could be recovered, they would form a most interesting addition to our stock
of autobiography.
BLACKWELL, Alexander and Elizabeth, husband and wife. The former
was brother to the more celebrated Dr Thomas Blacks ell, the subject of the fol-
lowing article. His father, Thomas Black well, was at first minister of Paisley,
whence he was removed, in 1700, to be one of the ministers of Aberdeen. He
was there appointed to be Professor of Divinity in the Marischal college, and
afterwards, in 1717, raised by the crown to the rank of Principal, which he
held till his death in 1728. Alexander, his son, exhibited at an early period
such symptoms of genius as induced his father to employ great personal care in
his education. At fifteen, he was a perfect Greek and Latin scholar, and he
afterwards distinguished himself very highly at college. It would appear that
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
242 ALEXANDER and ELIZABETH BLACKWELL.
Iiis uniou to Elizabeth Black well, who was the daughter of a merchant at Aber-
deen, took place under clandestine circumstances, and was connected with a step
which gave a direction to all his future fortunes. This was a secret elopement
to London, where he arrived before any of his friends knew where he was.
Blackwell appears to have been a man of mercurial and adventurous tempera-
ment ; possessing, with these qualities, exactly that degree of ability and accom-
plish me ut, which has enabled so many of his countrymen to prosecute a success-
ful career in London. His first employment was that of corrector of the press to
Mr Wilkins, an eminent printer. Afterwards, he was enabled to set up as a prin-
ter on his own account, and for this purpose he occupied a large house in the
Strand. But he did not long pursue this business before an action was brought
against him for not having served a regular apprenticeship to it The unsuc-
cessful defence of this action ruined him, and one of his creditors threw him into
jail, where he remained two years.
Hitherto we hear nothing of his wife — and, perhaps, but* for the misfortunes
of the husband, the virtues of this noble woman might have only decorated a
private station, and never emerged into the light of public fame. Like the
dower, however, which blooms most by night, the better quality of woman's na-
ture is chiefly developed under the cloud of sorrow ; and it is only when the
powers of inati have been prostrated, or found of no avail, that her weakness
shines forth in iU real character — latent strength. Elizabeth Blackwell hap-
pened to possess a taste for drawing flowers ; — a taste then so very rare, that
there was hardly any engraved work in existence, containing representations of
this interesting department of creation. The acknowledged want of a good
herbal occurred to her as affording the means of exerting this gift in a useful
way ; and some of her first attempts being submitted to Sir Hans Sloane, Dr
Mead, and other eminent physicians, she soon received sufficient encouragement to
proceed in her work. A document, attesting their satisfaction with Mrs Black-
well^ specimens, and recommending her contemplated work to public attention,
was signed by six eminent physicians, including these gentlemen, and bears
date, "October 1, 1735." By the advice of Mr Hand, an eminent apothecary,
demonstrator to the Company of Apothecaries in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea,
Mrs Blackwell hired a house near that establishment, where she had an oppor-
tunity of receiving the necessary flowers and plants in a fresh state, as she
wanted them ; she also received great encouragement and assistance from Mr
Philip Miller, so well known for his publications connected with horticulture.
Mrs Blackwell not only made drawings of the flowers, but she also engraved
them on copper, and coloured the prints with her own hands. Her husband lent
all the aid in his power, by attaching the Latin names of the plants, together
with a short account of their principal characters and uses, chiefly taken, by per-
mission, from Miller's " Botanicum Officinale." The first volume of the work
appeared in 1737, in large folio, containing two hundred and fifty-two plates,
each of which is occupied by one distinct flower or plant ; and was dedicated to
Dr Mead, with the following address ; " As the world is indebted to the en-
couragers of every public good, if the following undertaking should prove such,
it is but justice to declare who have been the chief promoters of it ; and as you
was the first who advised its publication, and honoured it with your name, give
me leave to tell the readers how much they are in your debt for tins work, and
to acknowledge the honour of your friendship." The second volume, complet-
ing the number of plates to ^re hundred, appeared in 1739, and was inscribed
to Mr Hand, in an address breathing as fervent a spirit of gratitude, and acknow-
ledging that, in her own ignorance of Botany, she was entirely obliged to him
tor the completeness of the work, so far as it went The drawings are in gene-
Digitized by
Google
ALEXANDER and ELIZABETH BLACKWELL. 243
ral faitliful ; and if there is wanting that accuracy which modern improvements
hare rendered necessary, in delineating the more minute parts, yet, upon the
whole, the figures are sufficiently distinctive of the subjects. The style of the
engravings is what would now he called hard, but it is fully on a level with the
prevailing taste of the age ; and, as a piece of labour, executed, it woidd ap-
pear, in the space of four years, by the hands of one woman, the whole work is
entitled alike to our wonder and admiration. While Mrs Blackwell was pro-
ceeding in her task, she attracted the attention of many persons of eminent rank
and character, and also a great number of scientific persons, who visited her at
Chelsea, and afforded her many marks of kindness. On the completion of the
first volume, she was permitted in person to present a copy to the College of
Physicians, who acknowledged her extraordinary merit by a handsome present,
as well as a, testimonial, under the hands of the president and censors of the in-
stitution, characterising her work as " most useful," and recommending it to the
public. It seems to have been at this period of her labours, that, after having
all along supported her family by her own exertions, she was enabled to redeem
her husband from confinement
Blackwell, after his release, lived for some time at Chelsea with his wife, and,
on her account, was much respected. lie attempted to perfect himself in the
study of physic, and also formed schemes for the improvement of waste lands.
This latter subject he studied to such a degree, as to be enabled to write an
agricultural treatise, which attracted some attention. Among his other occupa-
tions, for some time, was a prosecution which he entered into against some
printsellers, for pirating his wife's botanical plates. By his success in this affair,
he revenged in some measure the persecution to which he had been subjected for
his inadvertent breach of another exclusive law. His agricultural knowledge
gradually became known, and he was often consulted on difficult points con-
nected with that science, and received handsome fees for his trouble. At one
time he was employed by the Duke of Chandos in superintending some agricul-
tural operations at Cannons. His work on agriculture, which was published at
this time, recommended him to the attention of a still higher patronage — the
Swedish ambassador, who, having transmitted a copy to his court, was directed
to engage the author, if possible, to go to Stockholm. Blackwell accepted this
engagement, and sailed for the Swedish capital, leaving his wife and one chid
in England, with a promise that he would soon send for them. He was received
in the kindest manner at the court of Stockholm, was lodged in the house of
the Prime Minister, and was allowed a pension. The king of Sweden happen-
ing soon after to be taken dangerously ill, Blackwell was permitted to prescribe
for him, and had the good fortune to effect a cure. He was consequently ap-
pointed one of the king's physicians, and styled Doctor, though it does not
appear that he ever took a degree in medicine. While enjoying all this good
fortune, he was not forgetful of his wife, but sent her several sums of money, and
she was on the point of sailing to join him at Stockholm, when all his prospects,
and life itself, were overwhelmed at one blow. It is probable, from the charac-
ter of his brother Thomas, that he was a fervent admirer of the principles of
civil liberty. Nothing, moreover, can be more probable than that a man, ac-
customed to all the freedom of speech which is so harmlessly permitted in Bri-
tain, might not very readily accommodate himself to that prudence of the tongue
which is demanded from the subjects of an arbitrary monarchy. It is at least
certain, that he was apprehended on suspicion of being connected with a plot,
which had been formed by one Count Tessin, for overturning the constitution of
the kingdom, and altering the line of succession. Being put to the torture, be
ia alleged to have confessed a conrern in this conspiracy. Every reader, how
Digitized by
Google
244
THOMAS BLACKWELL.
erer, will acknowledge, that confessions under the torture form historical docu-
ments of a very questionable nature. Being tried for his supposed on%ice before
a royal commission, he was sentenced to be broken alive on the wheel, and put
to the death of a traitor. In the course of his trial, some imputations were
thrown upon his Britannic Majesty, for which, in conjunction with other circum-
stances, the British ambassador was recalled from Stockholm. The unfortunate
Black well was executed, July 29th, 1747, but not, it would appear, with the
tortures assigned by his sentence. On the scaffold, he protested to the people
his entire innocence of the crimes laid to his charge, and, as the best proof of
what he stated, pointed out his utter want of all motive for engaging in an at-
tempt against the government. He prayed with great devotion, but happening
to lay his head wrong upon the block, he remarked good-humouredly, that, as
this was his first experiment, no wonder he required a Little instruction. The
l-ite of Mrs Black well's death is not ascertained. 1 Her work was afterwards re-
published on the continent.
BLACKWELL, Thomas, the restorer of Greek literature in the North of Scot-
land, and a learned writer of the eighteenth century, was brother to the subject
of the preceding article. He was born at Aberdeen, August 4th, 1701, and
after receiving the rudiments of his education at the Grammar School of his na-
tive city, 2 entered his academical course at die Marischal College, where he took
the degree of A. M. in 1718. A separate professorship of Greek had not ex-
isted in this seminary previous to 1700, and the best of the ancient languages
was at that period very little cultivated in Scotland. Blackwell, having turned
his attention to Greek, was honoured, in 1723, when only twenty-two years of
age, with a crown appointment to this chair. He entered upon the discharge of
the duties of his office with the utmost ardour. It perfectly suited his inclination
and habits. He was an enthusiastic admirer of the language and literature of
Greece, and the whole bent of his studies was exclusively devoted to die cultiva-
tion of polite learning. He had the merit of rearing some very eminent Greek
scholars, among whom may be mentioned Principal George Campbell, Dr Alex-
ander Gerard, and i)r James Beattie. The last has borne ample testimony to
the merit of his master, in his "Essay on the Utility of Classical Learning,"
where he styles Principal Blackwell " a very learned author."
Dr Blackwell first appeared before the public, as an author, in 1737. His In-
quiry into the Life and Writings of Homer was published at London during the
course of that year, but without his name. It has been positively affirmed
1 Soon after the death of Blackwell, appeared "a genuine copy of a letter from a mer-
chant in Stockholm, to his correspondent in London, containing an impartial account of Dr
Alexander Blackwell, his plot, trial, character, and behaviour, both under examination and
at the place of execution, together with a copy of a paper delivered to a friend upon the
scaffold, in which he denied the crime imputed to him.'' This publication does not appear
to have been genuine, and as it contains some particulars of the life of Blackwell totally at
variance with the above more authentic and probable account, which is chiefly derived from
a letter signed G. J. and dated from Bath, in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1747, we have
entirely rejected it This spurious work is, nevertheless, chiefly used by Mr Nichols, in an
account of Blackwell given in the Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century.
* The history of the origin of what are technically, in Scotland, denominated Grammar
Schools, is involved in considerable obscurity. The probability is, that they were in most
cases founded by generous individuals, who wished well to the cause of literature, and who,
to secure that proper care should be taken in the management ot' the funds by which the
es tablishincnt was supported, vested the money appropriated for that purpose in some public
body, or corporation. It does not admit of a doubt, that this took place in several of the prin-
ci pal Scottish burghs ; but it is very singular, that those schools were limited to the Latin
'<* "Suage alone. This proceeded from the dread that there was a design in the founders of
such seminaries to supersede Universities, where Latin, Greek, and Hebrew were taught.
The Grammur School of Aberdeen was founded by Dr Patrick Dun, Principal of Mari-
schal College, who yas a native of the city, and had resided at Padua, where he took his
degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BLACK WELL 215
with what truth it is impossibly to say, that its being *inonyniuus } was in imita-
tion of I/o»d Shaftesbury r of whom he w;is a warm admirer, and whose wwrks
wore published after that manner. Tlie stylo, nlso, is vi tinted by a perpetual
eflbrt at the Shaftesbiirian vein, which is, perhaps, the principal fault in tJie
writings of BbickwelL A second edition of the work appeared in 174(1, and
shortly after, iA Proofs of the Inquiry into Homers Life and Writings.** These
proofs dvielly consisted of a translation of the Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian,
and 1'Vench notes subjoined to the original work. 'Hie Inquiry contains a
i^reat deal of research, as well as a display of uriscelbirmnus learning. Per-
haps its principal defect consists in the author's discovering an over anxiety
in regard to both ; at least, he h;is not been siitficiujitly careful to guard
against tht! imputation uf some times gin 115 out of Ins way to show what labour In-
had bestowed in examining every source of information, both ancient and
modern, foreign and domestic Though the life of Homer lias been writ-
ten by Herodotus, by Plutarch, and by Suidas, among the fi reeks, and by ran
innumerable host uf writers si '.altered through other nations, yet there is hardly
on** point in his history about tthich they are agreed, excepting tlie prodigious
merit of his pnems, and the sophist Zoihis would not even grant this. How
great uncertainty prevailed respecting the time and place of Ilia birth, abundantly
appears from seven Grecian cities con ten ding in regard to the bitter point.
When the tie Id was so extensive, and so great diversity of opinion prevailed, it
cannot Jail to be perceived how arduous an enterprise Ur BLiekwell had under-
taken, llis criticisms on the poems themselves are always encomiastic, often
ingenious, and delivered in Language that can give no reasonable ground of
nflence. The work will be read with both pleasure and profit by all who are
prepared to enter upon such inquiries. It ii generally esteemed the best of his
performances.
He published, in 1718, "Letters concerning .Mythology,** without his name
also. In the course of the same year, he was advanced to he principal of his
College, succeeding Dr John Osborne, who died noon the HHh of August
Dr Black we 11, however, was not admitted to the exercise of his new onlce till the
subsequent Uth of November. Tho tirst object of bis attention respected the dis-
cipline of the College. Great irregularities had crept into the institution, not in
Uis predecessor's time only, but probably almost from its foundation* Through
the poverty of the generality of the students in those days, their attendance ,
short ."ls 1 lie session was allowed to be, was very partial : to correct this, he con-
sidered to bo indispensably necessary. Accordingly, about the middle of Octo-
ber, 171(9 j previous to the commencement of the session, an advertisement in the
public papers informed tlie students, that a more regular attendance was to be
rei [ii ire d. This, it would appear, did not produce the intended elfect* Aiseord-
ingly, to show that the Principal rand Professors \vere perfectly in earnest when
they gave this public notice, three of the Bursars who had not complied with the
terms of the advertisement, were, on the 10th of November, expelled. I Uis deci-
sion gave general satisfaction, and indeed deserved high commendation.
But* that the Professors themselves might be more alert and attentive to their
duty, he revived a practice which, it is likely, had rat an early period been com-
mon, for every Professor in die University to deliver a discourse in the public
school upon some subject connected with his profession. He himself set the ox-
ample, and delivered his first oration upon the 7th of February, 17tL>. When
Hliickwell was promoted to the principality, instead of sinking in indolence, he
seeinj to have considered it rather as affording an excitement to exertion. In
February, 1750, be opened a class for the instruction of tlie students in ancient
history t geography, and chronology. Prelections on these branches of education,
Digitized by
Google
246 ADAM BLACKWOOD.
he thought necessary to render more perfect the course at Marischal College. He,
therefore, himself undertook the task. The design of his opening tlffe class evi-
dently was to pave the way for the introduction of a new plan of teaching into
Marischal College, which, accordingly, he soon after accomplished. At the
commencement of tjie session 1752, public notice was given that, "the Prin-
cipal, Professors, and Masters, having long had under their consideration the
present method of academical education, the plan of which, originally intro-
duced by the scholastic divines in the darkest times, is more calculated for dis-
putes and wrangling than to fit men for the duties of life, therefore have
resolved to introduce a new order in teaching the sciences." The order which
was then adopted, is what still continues in force in that University. Three
years- afterwards, when the new plan had been put to the trial for as many
sessions, the faculty of the college ordered an account of the plan of education
which was followed to be printed. This formed a pamphlet of thirty-five pages.
It concludes thus : — " They have already begun to experience the public ap-
probation by the increase of the number of their students." So that he had the
agreeable pleasure of witnessing the success of the plan he had proposed.
In 1752 he took the degree of Doctor of Laws, and in the subsequent
year, was published, in quarto, the first volume of " Memoirs of the Court of
Augustus.'* A second volume appeared in 1755, and a third, which was posthu-
mous, and left unfinished by the author, was prepared for the press by John
Mills, Esq. and published in 1764. In this work, the author has endeavoured to
give an account of Roman literature as it appeared in the Augustan age, and he
has executed the task with no small share of success. Objections might easily be
started to some of his theories and opinions, but every classical scholar who is
fond of literary history will peruse the work with pleasure as well as profit
Dr BlackweU died, at Edinburgh, upon the 6th of March, 1757. He was
certainly a very extraordinary person, and like every man of acknowledged
talents, formed a very general subject of conversation. He was formal, and even
pompous. His dress was after the fashion of the reign of Queen Anne. The
portly mien and dignified manner in which he stepped through the public school,
impressed all the students with a deep sense of his professional importance. He
was, nevertheless, kind and indulgent to them, and of a benevolent disposition.
He left a widow, but no children. Mrs BlackweU, in 1793, founded a chemical
professorship in Marischal College, and appointed a premium often pounds sterling
to be annually bestowed on the person who should compose, and deliver, in the
English language, the best discourse upon a given literary subject
BLACKWOOD, Adam, a learned writer of the sixteenth century, was born
"at Dunfermline, in 1539. He was descended from an ancient and respectable
family ; his father, William Blackwood, was slain in battle ere he was ten years
of age, (probably at Pinkie-field); his mother, Helen Reid, who was niece to
Robert Reid, Bishop of Orkney, died soon after, of grief for the loss of her hus-
band. By his uncle, the Bishop, he was sent to the university of Paris, but was
soon obliged to return, on account of the death of his distinguished relation.
Scotland, at this time, was undergoing the agonies of the reformation, under the
regency of Mary of Lorrain. Blackwood found it no proper sphere for his edu-
cation ; and therefore soon returned to Paris, where, by the liberality of his
youthful sovereign, Queen Mary, then residing at the court of France, he was
enabled to complete his studies, and to go through a course of civil law at the
university of Thoulouse. Having now acquired some reputation for learning and
talent, he was patronized by James Beaton, the expatriated Archbishop of Glas-
gow, who recommended him very warmly to Queen Mary and her husband, tlie
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
ADAM BLACKWOOD. 247
Dauphin, by whose influence he was chosen a member of the parliament of Poi-
tiers, and afterwards appointed to be professor of civil law at that court.
Poitiers was henceforth the constant residence of Blackwood, and the scene of
all his literary exertions. His tint work was one entitled, '* De Vinculo Reli-
gionis et Imperii, Libri Duo," Paris, 157 5, to which a third *book was added in
1612. The object of this work is to show the necessity under which rulers
are laid, of preserving the true — i. e. the Catholic, religion, from the innovations
of heretics, as all rebellions arise from that source. Blackwood, by the native
tone of his mind, the nature of his education, and the whole train of his associa-
tions, was a faithful adherent of the church of Rome, and of the principles of
monarchical government His next work developed these professions in a more
perfect manner. It was entitled, '' Apologia pro Regibus," and professed to be
an answer to George Buchanan's work, u De Jure Regni apud Scotos." Both
of these works argue upon extreme and unfair principles. Buchanan seeks to
apply to the simple feudal government of Scotland — a monarchical aristocracy —
all the maxims of the Roman republicans. Blackwood, on the other hand, is a
slavishly devout advocate for the divine right of kings. In replying to one of
Buchanans positions, the apologist of kings says, very gravely, that if one of
the scholars at St Leonard's College were to argue in tliat manner, he would
| richly deserve to be whipL Both of the above works are in Latin. He next
published, in French, an account of the death of his benefactress, Queen Mary,
under the title, " Martyre de Maria Stuart, Reyne d'Escosse," Antwerp, 8vo.,
1588. This work is conceived in a tone of bitter resentment regarding the
event to which it refers. He addresses himself in a vehement strain of passion,
to all the princes of Europe, to avenge her death ; declaring that they are un-
worthy of royalty, if they are not roused on so interesting and pressing an occa-
sion. At the end of the volume, is a collection of poems in Latin, French, and
Italian, upon Mary and Elizabeth ; in which the former princess is praised for
every excellence, while her murderess is characterised by every epithet expres-
sive of indignation and hate. An anagram was always a good weapon in those
days of conceit and false taste ; and one which we find in this collection was no
doubt looked upon as a most poignant stab at the Queen of England :
Eli z abet a Tkudera
Vadc, Jkzebel txtra.
In 1598, Blackwood published a manual of devotions under the title, "Sanc-
tarum precationum proemia," which he dedicated to his venerable patron, the
Archbishop of Glasgow. The cause of his writing this book was, that by read-
in* much at night he had so weakened his eyes, as to be unable to distinguish
his own children at the distance of two or three yards : in the impossibility of
employing himself in study, he was prevailed upon, by the advice of the Arch-
bishop, to betake himself to a custom of nocturnal prayer, and hence the com-
position of this book. In 1606, Blackwood published a Latin poem on the
inauguration of James VI., as king of Great Britain. In 1609, appeared at
Poitiers, a complete collection of his Latin poems. He died, in 1623, in the
74th year of his age, leaving four sons (of whom one attained to his own sena-
torial dignity in the parliament of Poitiers), and seven daughters. He was most
splendidly interred in St Forcharius' church at Poitiers, where a marble monumen,
was reared to his memory, charged with a long panegyrical epitaph. In 1644,
appeared his " Opera Omnia,'' in one volume 4to., edited by the learned Naudeus,
who prefixes an elaborate eulogium upon the author. Blackwood was not only
a man of consummate learning and great genius, but is allowed to have also ful-
filled, in life, all the duties of a good man.
Digitized by
Google
248
HENRY BLACKWOOD.— WILLTAM BLACKWOOD.
BLACKWOOD, Hknry, brother to the subject of the preceding article, and
his senior by some years, was educated under nearly similar circumstances, and,
in 1551, taught philosophy in the university of Paris. Haying afterward* ap-
plied himself to the study of medicine, he rose to be dean of that faculty at
Paris, an office of the very highest dignity which could then be reached by a
member of the medical profession. He appears to have been one of the earliest
modern physicians who gave a sanction to the practice of letting blood. He
published various treatises on medicine, and also upon philosophy, of which a list
is preserved in Mackenzie's Lives of Scots Writers. He acted at one time as
physician to the Duke of Longueville, with a salary of two hundred pistoles, .At
another time, when the plague prevailed at Paris, he remained in the city, and
exerted himself so zealously in the cure of hi i numerous patients, as to gain
universal applause. He died, in 1 o" 1 3 or 1 6 t \ t at a very advanced ajje.
BLACKWOOD, William, an eminent publisher and origins tor of the
magazine which bears his name, was born in Kdinlmrgh, November 20, I77fi,
of parents who, though in humble circumstances, bore a rc*pci-i;ible rhnrari*!-,
and were a Me to give this and their other children an excellent elemental v
education* At the age of fourteen, he commenced an apprenticeship with
Messrs Hell and Itradfute, bookseller* in his native city, with whom lie ron-
Unued six yean** During this time* He stored his mind with a large fund of
miscellaneous reading; which was of great service to htm in after life, h is
probable thnt he at the same time manifested no common talents for business,
as, soon after the expiration of his apprenticeship, [1797 ,] he was selected by
Messrs J. ftlundell and Company, then carrying on an extensive publishing
business in the Scottish capital, to take the charge of n branch of (heir concern
which they had resolved to establish in Glasgow. Mr H lack wood acted as the
Hlasgnw agent of Muudell and Company for a year, during which time he im-
proved greatly as a man of business; Thrown in a great measure upon hi) own
re sour res, he here in-quired habit* of decision, such as are rarely formed at so
early an age, and which were afterwards of the greatest importance to him.
Having also occasion to write frequently to his constituents, he formed a style
for commercial correspondence f the excellence of which Has a subject of ire-
que ut remark in his later yea is.
At the end of the year, when the business he had conducted at Glasgow was
given lip, Mr I Hack wood returned to Messrs Bell and Rradfute, with whom he
continued about a year longer, lie then {(MOO) entered into partnership
with Mr ltohert Hots, a bookseller of some standing, who also acted as
aii auctioneer of bonks. Not long after, finding the line of business pursued
by Mr Kou uncongenial to his taste, he retired from the partnership, and, pro»
reeding to London, placed himself, for improvement in the antiquarian depart-
ment of his trade t under Mr OuthilL Hemming once m ore In Edinburgh in
1304, he set up on his own account in a shop in Snub Bridge street,
where for several year* he confined his attention almost exclusively ic
the department just alluded to v in which he was allowed to have no rival
of superior intelligence in Scotland. The catalogue of old honks which
he published in ItitJJ, being the first of the kind in which the books
were classified, nod which referred to a stock of uncommon richness and
variety, continues till the present day to be a standard authority for the prices
of old books. At this period of his career, Mr Blackwood became agent for
several of the first London publishing houses, and also began to publish exten-
sively for himself. In 1*16", having resolved to throw a larger share of his
energies into the latter department of business, he sold off his stock of
old books, and removed to a shop in the New Town, soon to become one t*f
the most memorable localities connected with modern literary history.
Digitized by
Googk
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD. 249
For a considerable time, Mr Blackwood had been of opinion that something'
like the same regeneration which the Edinburgh Review had given to
periodical criticism, might be communicated to that species of miscellaneous
literature which chiefly assumed the monthly form of publication. At this time,
the Scots Magazine of his native city, which had never pretended to any merit
above that of a correct register, was scarcely in any respect more flat and
insipid than the publications of the same kind in London. It was reserved for
the original and energetic mind of the subject of this memoir, to raise this
department of popular literature from the humble state in which it had hitherto
existed, or to which, when we recollect the labours of Johnson and Goldsmith,
we may rather say it had sunk, and to place it on the eminence for which it
was evidently fitted. The first number of Blackwood's Magazine appeared in
April, 1817, and, though bearing more resemblance to preceding publications
of the same kind than it afterwards assumed, the work was from the first acknow-
ledged by the public to possess superior merit. The publishers of the elder
magazines made an almost immediate, though indirect confession to this effect, by
attempts to put new and more attractive faces upon their publications, and stimu-
late the lagging energies of those who conducted them. The two young men
who were chiefly engaged upon the work of Mr Blackwood, having disagreed with
him, were employed by Mr Constable to take the charge of the Scots Magazine,
which he, like others in similar circumstances, was endeavouring to resuscitate
from the slumbers of a century. Mr Blackwood was already more than inde-
pendent of these gentlemen, in consequence of the aid which he was receiving
from other quarters ; but bitter feelings had nevertheless been engendered,
and these found veut, through the fancy of some of his new contributors, in the
celebrated article in the seventh number of his magazine, styled " Translation
of a Chaldee Manuscript." In th'wjeu cf esprit, the circumstances of the late
feud, and the efforts of Mr Constable to repair the fortunes of his ancient
nugazine, were thrown into a form the most burlesque that ever imagination
conceived, though certainly with very little of the ill nature which the article
unfortunately excited in the most of those who figured in it. In consequence
of the painful feelings to which it gave rise, Mr Blackwood cancelled it from
all the copies within his reach ; and it is now, consequently, very rarely to be
met with.
Blackwood's Magazine, as already hinted, had not been in progress for many
months, before it obtained the support of new and unexpected talent Mr
John Wilson, already distinguished by his beautiful poetry, and Mr John
G. Lockhart, whose more regular, though perhaps less brilliant genius has since
found a fitting field in the management of the Quarterly Review, were at this
time young men endeavouring to make their way at the Scottish bar. Having
formed an attachment to Mr Blackwood, thqy threw into his literary repertory
the overflowing bounties of two minds, such as rarely rise singly, and much
more rarely together; and soon enchained the attention of the public to a series
of articles not more remarkable for their ability, than for an almost unexampled
recklessness of humour and severity of sarcasm. It is not to be denied that much
offence was thus occasionally given to the feelings of individuals ; but, in ex-
tenuation of any charge which can be rested on such grounds, it may be pointed
out that, while Mr Blackwood had his own causes of complaint in the ungen-
erous hostility of several of his commercial brethren, the whimsical genius of his
contributors had unquestionably found a general provocation in the overweening
pretensions and ungracious deportment of several of their literary seniors, some
of whom had, in their own youth, manifested equal causticity, with certainly no
greater show of talent. To these excuses must be added the relative one of
3 itized by G00gk'
WUXIAM BLACKWOOD.
poll lit*. Mr Blackwood from the firs! took a strong part with the existing
Tory govern me nt , which in Edinburgh had been powerfully supported hereto-
fore in every manner except by Lilt* pen, while the opposition had lung pos-
sessed a literary organ of the highest authority. In treating, therefore, of some
of the juvenile in d it ere Lion* of this extraordinary work, and those connected
with it, we must, if willing to preserve impartiality, recollect the keenness with
which politics and political men wens then dismissed.
In the management of the roagaskie, Mr Blackwood at all timet bore in hi*
own person the principal share. The selection of articles, the eorres pon den ce
with contributors, and other duties connected with editorship, were performed
by him during a period of seventeen years, with a degree of skill, on which it
is not too much to say that no small portion of the success of the work de-
pended. In its earlier years he contributed two or three articles himself ; but
to this, as a practice, he had a decided objection , as he could easily perceive
that an editor, especially one like himself not trained to letters, is apt to be
biassed respecting his own composition*. It may easily be conceived, however,
that, in the management of the literary and mercantile concerns of such a work,
there was sufficient employment for even a man of his extraordinary energies.
And no small praise must it ever be to the subject of this brief memoir, that,
during so long a peri oil, he maintained in his work so much of the vivid spirit
with which it set out; kept up so unfailing a succession of brilliant articles in
genera] literature, altogether exclusive of the regular papers of Mr VVitson, — as
if he were exhausting mind after mind among the literary men of his country,
and still at no loss to discover new ; and never, throughout his whole career,
varied in a single page frum the political key-note which he had struck at the
commencement. To have done these things, and with so much apparent ease
to himself, and so little ostentation, for these were features in his masterly
career — argues in our opinion a character of unwonted vigour, as well as no
small share of intellectual power,
The magazine eventually reached a circulation not much short often thousand
copies, and, while reprinted in North America, found its way from the pub-
lishers warehouse into every other part of the world where the Knglish language
was spoken. Notwithstanding the great claims it made upon Ms time, Mr
Blackwood continued till his death to transact a large share of business as a
general publisher. Not long before that event, he completed the Edinburgh
Kncyclopedia in eighteen volumes quarto, and, among his nther more important
publications, may be reckoned Kerr*s Collection of Voyages and Travels, in
eighteen volumes octavo. The chief distinct works of Messrs Wilson, 1-nckbart,
Hogg, Moir, Unit, and other eminent persons connected with his magazine, and
some of the writings nf Sir Walter Scott, were published by Mr I Hack wood.
He also continued till the close of his career to carry on an extensive trade in
retail bookselling,
Mr Blackwood died, September 16, 1831, after a painful illness of four
months. His disease, a tumour in the groin, had in that time exhausted his
physical energies, but left his Lemper calm and unruffled, and his intellect en-
tire and vigorous even to the last.
In the words of his obituarist, M No man ever conducted business in a
more direct and manly manner than Mr Blackwood* His opinion was on all
occasions distinctly expressed ; his questions were ever explicit; his answers
conclusive* His sincerity might sometimes be considered as rough, but no
human being ever accused him either of flattering or of shuttling ; and those
men of letters who were in frequent communication with him, soon conceived a
respect and confidence for him, which, save in a very few instances, ripened
Digitized by
Google
HUGH BLAIR, D.D. 251
into cordial regard and friendship. The masculine steadiness, and impertur-
bable resolution of his character, were impressed on all his proceedings ; and it
will be allowed by those who watched him through his career, as the publisher
of a literary and political miscellany, that these qualities were more than once
very severely tested. He dealt by parties exactly as he did by individuals.
Whether his principles were right or wrong, they were his, and he never com-
promised or complimented away one tittle of them. No changes, either of men
or of measures, ever dimmed his eye, or checked his courage."
Mr Blackwood was twice a magistrate of his native city, and in that capacity
distinguished himself by an intrepid zeal in the reform of burgh management,
singularly in contrast with his avowed sentiments respecting constitutional
reform.
BLAIR, Hugh, D.D. one of the most eminent divines and cultivators of polite
literature, of the eighteenth century, was born at Edinburgh, April 7, 1718.
His father, John Blair, a merchant of Edinburgh, and who at one time occupied
a respectable office in the magistracy, was grandson to Robert Blair, an eminent
divine of the seventeenth century, whose life is commemorated in its proper place
in this work. John Blair was thus cousin-german to the author of the Grave,
whose life follows, in the present work, that of his distinguished ancestor. John
Blair, having impaired his fortune by engaging in the South Sea scheme,
latterly held an office in the excise. He married Martha Ogston, and the first
child of this marriage was the subject of the following memoir.
Hugh Blair was early remarked by his father to possess the seeds of genius.
For this reason, joined to a consideration, perhaps, of his delicate constitution, he
was educated for the church. He commenced his academic career at the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, October, 1730, and as his weakly health disabled him from
enjoying the usual sports of boyhood, his application to study was very close.
Among the numerous testimonies to his proficiency, which were paid by his in-
structors, one deserves to be particularly mentioned, as, in his own opinion, it
determined the bent of his genius towards polite literature. An essay, UtPt to»
x«Xojr, that is, upon the Beautiful, 1 written by him when a student of logic in
the usual course of academical exercises, had the good fortune to attract the
notice of professor Stevenson, and, with circumstances honourable to the author,
was appointed to be read in public at the conclusion of the session. This mark
of distinction, which occurred in his sixteenth year, made a deep impression on
his mind ; and the essay which merited it, he ever after recollected with partial
affection, and preserved to the day of his death, as the first earnest of his fame.
At this time Dr Blair commenced a method of study, which contributed much
to the accuracy and extent of his knowledge, and which he contiuued to practise
occasionally even after his reputation was fully established. It consisted in mak-
ing abstracts of the most important works which he read, and in digesting them
according to the train of his own thoughts. History, in particular, he resolved
to study in this manner ; and in concert with some of his youthful associates, he
constructed a very comprehensive scheme of chronological tables, for receiving
into its proper place every important fact which should occur. The scheme de-
vised by this young student for his own private use was afterwards improved,
filled up, and given to the public, by his learned relative Dr John Blair, Preben-
dary of Westminster, in his valuable work, " The Chronology and History of
the World."
1 A technical Greek phrase, expressing the abstract idea of the perfection of beaut)
m objects of taste. A devotion to the " To kalon " in that nation, was similar to what th«;
modems understand by a correct taste.
Digitized by
Google
252
HUGH BLAIR, D.D.
In 1739, on taking the degree of Master of Arts, Blair printed his thesis,
" De Fundamentis et Obligatione Legis Naturae,** which contains a brief outline
of these moral principles afterwards developed in his sermons, and displays the
first dawnings of that virtuous sensibility, liy which he was at all periods of his
public life so highly distinguished. On the 21st of October, 1741, he was
licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Edinburgh, and soon began, in the
usual manner, to exhibit himself occasionally in the pulpit. Heretofore, the
only popular style of preaching in Scotland was that of the evangelical party,
which consisted chiefly in an impassioned address to the devotional feelings of the
audience. The moderate party, who were of course least popular had neither
lost the practice of indulging in tedious theological disquisitions, nor acquired
that of expatiating on the moral duties. The sermons of this young licentiate,
which presented sound practical doctrines, in a style of language almost un-
known in Scotland, struck the minds of the audience as something quite
new. In the course of a very few months, his fame had travelled far beyond
the bounds of his native city. A sermon which he preached in the West
Church, produced an extraordinary impression, and was spoken of in highly
favourable terms to the Earl of Leven. His lordship accordingly present-
ed the preacher to the parish church of Golessie in Fife, which happened to be
then vacant He was ordained to this charge, September 23, 1743, but was
not long permitted to labour in so confined a scene. In a tew months, he was
brought forward by his friends as candidate for the second charge of the church
of Canongate, which may almost be considered a metropolitan situation. In the
popular election which followed, he was successful against a very formidable com-
petitor, Mr Robert Walker, then a favourite preacher. He was inducted to this
charge, July 14, 1743, when he had little more than completed his twenty-fifth
year. On the occasion of the insurrection of 1745, Blair preached a sermon, in
the warmest strain of loyalty to the existing government, and which he after-
wards printed. During the eleven years which he spent in the Canongate, his
sermons attracted large audiences from the adjoining city, and were alike admir-
ed for their eloquence and piety. They were composed with uncommon care ;
and, occupying a middle place between the dry metaphysical discussion of one
class of preachers, and the loose incoherent declamation of the other, they blend-
ed together in the happiest manner the light of argument with the warmth of
exhortation, and exhibited captivating specimens of what had hitherto been rarely
neard in Scotland, the polished, well-compacted, and regular didactic oration.
On the 11th of October, 1754, he was called by the town council of Edin-
burgh to accept of one of the city charges, that of Lady Yester's church, and op
the 15 til of June, 1758, he was promoted by the same body to the highest
situation attainable by a Scottish clergymen, one of the charges of the High
Church. This latter removal took place, according to the records of the town-
council, " because they had it fully ascertained, tliat his translation would be
highly acceptable to persons of the most distinguished character and eminent
rank in tins conn try, who had seats in said church. >' In truth, this place of wor-
ship might have been styled, in the absence of an episcopal system, the metro-
politan church of Scotland. In it sat the lords of Session, and all the other great
law and state officers, besides the magistrates and council, and a large congrega-
tion of the most respectable inhabitants of the town. It might now, therefore,
be said, that the eloquence of Blair had at last reached a fit theatre for its dis-
play. In the year previous to this last translation, he had been honoured by
the university of St Andrews with the degree of D. D. which was then very rare
in Scotland.
Hitherto, Blair's attention seems to have been chiefly devoted to his profession.
Digitized by
Google
HUGH BLAIB, D.D. 253
No production of his pen had yet been given to the world by himself, except
two sermons preached on particular occasions, some translations of passages of
Scripture, for the psalmody of the church, and the article on Hutcheson's system of
Moral Philosophy for the Edinburgh Review, a periodical work begun in 1755,
by Hume, Robertson, and others, and which only extended to two numbers.
Standing, as he now did, at the head of his profession, and released by the la-
bour of former years from the drudgery of weekly preparation for the pulpit, he
began to think seriously on a plan for teaching to others the art which had contribut-
ed so much to his own fame. Some years before. Dr Adam Smith had delivered in
Edinburgh a series of lectures on rhetoric and elegant literature, which had been
well received. In 1759, Dr Blair commenced, with the approbation of the uni-
versity, a course upon the principles of literary composition. The roost gealous
friends to this undertaking were David Hume and Lord Kames, the latter of
whom had devoted much attention to the subject. The approbation bestowed
upon the lectures was so very high, and their fame became so generally diffused,
that the town-council resolved to institute a rhetorical class in the university,
under his direction ; and, in 1762, this professorship was taken under the pro-
tection of the crown, with a salary of seventy pounds a year. Dr Blair continu-
ed to deliver his lectures annually till 1783, when he published them for the
more extensive* benefit of mankind. They are not by any means, nor were they
ever pretended to be, a profound or original exposition of the laws of the belles
lettres. They are acknowledged to be a compilation from many different sources,
and only designed to form a simple and intelligible code for the instruction of
youth in this department of knowledge. Regarded in this light, they are entitled
to very high praise, which has accordingly been liberally bestowed by the public
These lectures have been repeatedly printed, and still remain an indispensable
monitor in the study of every British scholar.
In 1763, Dr Blair made his first appearance before the world as an author or
critic. He had, in common with his frien4 John Home, taken a deep interest
in the exertions of Macpherson, for the recovery of the Highland traditionary
poetry. Relying without suspicion upon the faith of the collector, he prefixed
to the " Poems of Ossian '> a dissertation pointing out the beauties of those
compositions. The labour must of course be now pronounced in a great mea-
sure useless ; but nevertheless it remains a conspicuous monument of the taste of
Dr Blair.
It was not till 1777, that he could be prevailed upon to offer to the world any
of those sermons with which he had so long delighted a private congregation.
We have his own authority for saying that it was his friend Lord Kames who
was chiefly instrumental in prompting him to take this step. For a long period,
hardly any sermons published either in England or Scotland, had met with suc-
cess. The public taste seemed to have contracted an aversion to this species of
composition. We are informed by Boswell in his life of Johnson, that when
Blair transmitted a volume to Mr Strahan, the King's printer, that gentleman,
i fler letting it lie beside him for some time, returned a letter discouraging the
p ublication. It is probable that this opinion, which seems to have been given
only on general grounds, might have caused Dr Blair to abandon his intention ;
but fortunately, Mr Strahan had sent one of the sermons to Dr Johnson for his
opinion, and after his unfavourable letter to Dr Blair had been sent off, he re-
ceived from Johnson, on Christmas eve, 1776, a note, of which the following is
a paragraph : " I have read over Dr Blair's first sermon, with more than appro-
bation; to say it is good is to say too little.'' Mr Strahan had very soon alter
this time a conversation with Dr Johnson, concerning the sermons ; and then he
very candidly wrote again to Dr Blair, enclosing Johnson's note, and agreeing
Digitized by
Google
254:
HUGH BLAIR, D.D.
to purchase the volume, with Mr Cadell, for one hundred pounds. The sale was
to rapid and extensive, and the approbation of the public so high, that, to their
honour be it recorded, the proprietors made IJr Ulair a present, first of one sum,
and afterwards of another, of fifty pounds ; thus voluntarily doubling the stipu-
lated price. Perhaps, in no country, not even in his own, were these composi-
tions so highly appreciated as in England, Mliere they were received with die
keenest relish, not only on account of their abstract excel lenre» but prtly from
a kind of surprise as to the quarter from which ihuy came — no devotional work,
produced by Scotland, having ever before been found entitled to much atten-
tion in the southern section of the island, lire volume speedily fell under the
attention of George 111., and his virtuous consort, and was by them very highly
admired. His majesty, with that wise and sincere attention to the interests of
religion and virtue, which has given to his reign a respectability above all that
military or political glory can purchase, was graciously pleased to judge the au-
thor worthy of a public reward. By a royal mandate to the exchequer in Scot-
land, dated July 25, 1780, a pension of <£^>>0 a-year, was bestowed on Ur
Blair. It is said that the sermons were first read in the royal closet, by the Earl
of Mansfield; and there is little reason to doubt that tbey were indebted in some
degree to the elocution of the " elegant Murray" for the impression winch they
produced upon the royal family.
During the subsequent part of his Life, Dr Blair published three other volumes
of sermons; and it might safely be said that each successive publication only
tended to deepen the impression produced by the first. These compositions,
which were translated into almost every language in Europe, formed only a small
part of the discourses which he prepared tor the pulpit The number of those
which remained, was creditable to his professional character, and exhibited a
convincing proof that his fame as a public teacher had been honourably pur-
chased, by the most unwearied application to the private and unseen labours of
his office. Out of his remaining manuscripts, he had prepared a fifth volume,
which appeared after his death ; the rest, according to an explicit injunction in
his will, were committed to the flames. The last sermon iihieh he composed
was one in the fifth volume, "on a life of dissipation and pleasure/ 1 Though
written at the age of eighty-two, it is a dignified and eloquent discourse, and
may be regarded as his solemn parting admonition to a class of men ulwise con-
duct is highly important to the community, and whose reformation and virtue he
had long laboured most zealously to promote.
The Sermons of Blair, are not now, perhaps, to be criticised with that blind
admiration which ranked them, in their <mn time, amidst the classics of English
literature. The present age is now generally sensible that they are deficient in
that religious unction which constitutes the better part of such mm positions, And
are but little calculated to stir and rouse the heart to a sense of spiritual duty*
Every thing, however, must be considered more or less relatively* Bhurs mind
was fonned at a time when the fervours of evangelical divinity were left by die
informed classes generally, to the lowly and utiinstructed hearts, winch, after all.
are the great citadels of religion in every country, A certain order of the
clergy, towards the end of the eighteenth century, seemed to find it necessary,
in order to prevent an absolute revolt of the higher orders from the standards of
religion, to accommodate themselves to the prevailing Liste, and only administer
moral discourses, with an insinuated modicum of real piety, uhcre their proper
purpose unquestionably is to maintain spiritual grace in the breasts of the people,
by all the means which the gospel has placed within their reach. '1 bus, as
Blair preached to the most refined congregation in Scotland, he could hardly
have failed to fall into this prevalent fish ion ; and In- ;.. iliaps considered, with
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
HUGH BLAIR, D.D.
255
perfeet sincerity, that he was justified hv the precept of St Fmil, which com-
mauds the ministers of religion to tie *' all things to all men.* 1 Religious feeling
uj modified by time mid place ; and 1 do not apprehend it to he impossible
dint the mind of Hugh Blair, existing at the time of his celebrated Ancestor,
mi giit have exerted itself in maintaining the covenant, and inspiring the popu-
lace with the energy necessary for that purpose ; while tbe intellect and heart of
hii predecessor, if Interchanged, might have spent their steal in behalf of Henry
Viscount fllelvilto, and in gently pleasing the minds of a set of modern indiffer-
ent s, with 01 to «Tain of the gospel dissolved into a large cooling-draught of moral
disou isitiou,
The remaining part of the life of Blair hardly affords a single additional inci-
dent He had been married, in 1 744, to his cousin, Katherin© Bannatyne,
daughter of the Hvv James Bannatyne, one of the ministers of Edinburgh. By
tins Lady he had a son who died in infancy, and a daughter, who survived to her
twenty-first year, the pride of her parents, and adorned with all the accomplish-*
ments which belong to her age and sax. Mrs lUair, herself a woman of great
good sense and spirit, was also taken from him a few years before his death, after
she had shared with the tenderest al Section in all his fortunes, and contributed
nearly half a century to his happiness and comfort. The latter part of his life
was spent in the enjoyment of a degree of public respect which falls to the lot
of few men, but which was eminently deserved by him, both on account of hii
high literary accompli suments, and the singular purity and benevolence of his
private character. He latterly was enabled, by the various sources of income
which he en joyed , to set up a carriage ; a luxury enjoyed, perhaps, by no pre-
decessor in the Scottish church, and by very few" of his successors. He also
maintained an elegant hospitality, both at his town and 00011117 residences,
which were much resorted to by strangers of distinction who happened to visit
Edinburgh.
It may be curious to know in what manner those discourses were delivered
from the pulpit, which have so highly charmed the world in print As might be
easily supposed, where there was so much merit of one kind, there could scarcely,
without a miracle, be any high degree of another and entirely different kind.
In truth, the elocution of Dr IJlair, though accompanied by a dignified and im-
pressive manner, was not lit to bo compared with his powers of composition.
His voice was deformed by a peculiarity which I know not how to express by
any other term than one almost too homely for modern com pi >s it ion, a burr r Ho
also wanted all that charm which is to he derived from gesticulation, and, upon
the whole, might be characterized as n somewhat formal preacher.
In what is called church politics, Dr Blair was a strenuous moderate, but newr
took an active share in the proceedings of the church. A constitutional delicacy
of organization unfitted him for any scene where men have to come into strong
and personal collision. In temporal politics, he was a devout admirer of the
existing constitution, and a zealous supporter of the tory government which flour-
ished during the greater part of the reign of Ueorge III. With Viscount Mel-
ville, to whose father ho had dedicated his thesis in early youth r he maintained
a constant interchange of civilities. At the breaking out of the French revolu-
tion, he exerted himself in the most energetic manner to stop the tide of disaffec-
tion and irreligion, which at one particular crisis seemed to threaten all existing
institutions. He declared in the pulpit that none but a good subject could be a
good Christian ; an expression so strongly akin to the ancient doctrines of pas-
sive obedience and non-resistance, that it can only be excused by the particular
rircumstances of the time The mind of J J lair was too fastidiously exact and
elegant to display any thing of the majestic. Possessing more taste than genius,
Digitized by
Google
256
JAMES BLAIR.
he never astonished in conversation by any original remark. In company, he
made a far less striking appearance than the half-instructed peasant Burns, who
at his first visit to Edinburgh, was warmly patronized by Dr Blair. In some
points of view, his mind bore an unprepossessing aspect He was content tr
read, and weak enough to admire the wretched fictitious compositions which ap-
peared in that age under the denomination of novels. He would talk profusely
'•-? the furniture of the room in which he was sitting, criticising every object with
a sincere and well-weighed attention, which would not have been ill-bestowed
upon the most solemn subjects. In his dress, and in almost all points of mere
externe and ceremonial form, he was minutely fastidious. He was also so fond
of the approbation of his fellow-creatures — in moderation, a most useful feature
of character — that even very marked flattery was received by him not only with-
out displeasure, but with an obviously keen relish, that said little either for hif
discrimination or his modesty. Yet, with these less worthy points of charac-
ter, Blair had no mean moral feelings. He was incapable of envy; spokf
liberally and candidly of men whose pursuits and opinions differed from his own,
and was seldom betrayed into a severe remark upon any subject unconnected
with actual vice.
Though his bodily constitution was by no means robust, yet by habitual tem-
perance and by attention to health, his life was happily prolonged beyond the
usual period. For some years he had felt himself unequal to the fatigue of in-
structing his very large congregation from the pulpit ; and under the impression
which this feeling produced, he has been heard to say, with a sigh, that, " he
was left almost the last of his contemporaries." Such, nevertheless, was the vigour
of his mind, that, in 1799, when past the eightieth year of his age, he composed
and preached one of the most effective sermons he ever delivered, on behalf of
the fund for the benefit of the sons of the clergy. He was also employed during
the summer of 1 800, in preparing his last volume for the press ; and for this
purpose, he copied the whole with his own hand. He began the winter, pleased
with himself on account of this exertion ; and his friends were flattered with the
hope that he might live to enjoy the accession of emolument and fame which he
expected it would bring. But the seeds of a mortal disease were lurking within
him. On the 24th of December, he felt slight pain in his bowels, with which
neither he nor his friends were alarmed. On the afternoon of the 26th, this
pain encreased, and violent symptoms began to appear ; the causes of which
were then unfortunately unknown both to himself and his physician. He had
for a few years laboured under an inguinal hernia. This malady, which he was
imprudently disposed to conceal, he considered as trifling ; and he understood
that by taking the ordinary precautions, nothing was to be apprehended from it
It settled, however, into a stoppage of the bowels, and ere the physician was
made aware of his condition, an inflammation had taken place, and he conse-
quently survived only till the morning of the 27th, thus expiring almost at the
same time with that century of the Christian epoch, of which he had been one of
the most distinguished ornaments. He died in the eighty-third year of his age,
and the fifty-ninth of his profession as a minister of the gospeL
BLAIR, James, an eminent divine, was reared for the episcopal church of Scot-
land, at the time when it was struggling with the popular dislike in the reign of
Charles II. Discouraged by the equivocal situation of that establishment in
Scotland, he voluntarily abandoned his preferments, and removed to England,
where he was patronized by Compton, Bishop of London. By this prelate he
was prevailed upon to go as a missionary to Virginia, in 1685, and, having given
the greatest satisfaction by his zeal in the propagation of religion, he was, in
lo89, preferred to the office of commissary to the bishop, which was the high
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BLAIR.— JOHN BLAIR, LL.D. 257
est ecclesiastical dignity in that province. His exertions were by no means
confined to his ordinary duties. Observing the disadvantage under which
the province laboured through the want of seminaries for lie education of
a native clergy, he set about, and finally was able to accomplish, the honourable
work of founding the college of Williamsburgh, which was afterwards, by his
personal intervention, endowed by king William III., with a patent, under the
title of the William and Mary College. He died in 1743, after having tx
president of this institution for about fifty, and a minister of the gospel *or
above sixty years. He had also enjoyed the office of president of the council of
Virginia. In the year before his death, he had published at London, his great
work, entitled, " Our Saviour s Divine Sermon on the Mount Explained, and the
Practice of it Recommended, in divers sermons and discourses," 4 vols. 8vo.,
which is styled by Dr Waterland, the editor of a second edition, a " valuable
treasure of sound divinity and practical Christianity."
BLAIR, John, a churchman of noble family, who, being compelled by the
tyranny of Edward I. in Scotland to join the bands of Sir William Wallace, be-
came chaplain to that hero, and did not scruple 'also to take a share in his
battles, He wrote an account of the deeds of Wallace, which is now lost, but is
supposed to have furnished materials to Blind Harry. Another work of Blair's
was styled, " De Liberata Tyrannide Scotia."
BLAIR, John, L.L.D. an eminent chronologist, was, as already mentioned in the
memoir of Dr Hugh Blair, a relative of that distinguished personage. He received
a clerical education at Edinburgh, and afterwards went in search of employment
to London, along with Mr Andrew Henderson, author of a " History of the
Rebellion of 1745," and many other works, and who, for some years, kept a
bookseller's shop in Westminster HalL As Henderson describes himself as re-
siding in Edinburgh at the time of the battle of Prestonpans, it is probable that
Blair's removal to London took place after that event Henderson's first em-
ployment was that of an usher at a school in Hedge Lane, in which he was
succeeded by Blair. The attention of the latter had probably been directed to
chronology by the example of Dr Hugh Blab?, who, as already mentioned, com-
menced a series of tables of events, for his own private use, which ultimately formed
the groundwork of the work given to the world, in 1754, under the title of " The
Chronology and History of the World, from the Creation to the year of Christ,
1753 ; illustrated in fifty-six tables, of which four are introductory, and con-
tain the centuries prior to the first Olympiad, and each of the remaining fifty
two contain, in one expanded view, fifty years, or half a century. By the Rev.
John Blair, LL. D." This large and valuable work was published by subscrip-
tion, and was dedicated to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. In January, 1755, Dr
John Blair was elected F. R. S. and in 1761, F. A. S. In 1753, he published
a new edition of his " Chronology," In September, 1757, he was appointed
chaplain to the Dowager Princess of Wales, and mathematical tutor to the Duke
of York, (brother to George III.) ; and on Dr Townshend's promotion to the
deanery of Norwich, the services of Dr Blair were rewarded, March, 1761, with a
prebendal stall in Westminster abbey. Such a series of rapidly accumulating honours
has fallen to* the lot of very few Scottish adventurers. But this was not destined
to be the end of his good fortune. He had only been prebend of Westminster
six days, when the death of the vicar of Hinckley, in Leicestershire, enabled the
Dean and Chapter to present him to that valuable living, to which was soon after
added, the rectory of Burtoncoggles' in Lincolnshire. In 1763-4, he made
the tour of the continent, in company with his royal pupiL A new and enlarged
edition of his " Chronology " appeared in 1768, and in 1771 he was presented,
by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, to the vicarage of St Bride's in the
Digitized by
Google
258
PATRICK BLAIR, M.D.
city of London, which made it necessary for him to resign Hinckley. In 1776,
he resigned St Bride's, in order to succeed to the rectory of St John the Evan-
gelist in Westminster; and in June that year, he obtained a dispensation to hold
this benefice along with that of Horton, near Colebrooke, in Buckinghamshire.
In the memorable sea-fight of the 12th of August, 1782, his brother, Captain
Blair, in the command of the Anson, was one of three distinguished officers who
fell, and to whom the country afterwards voted a monument This event gave
such a shock to the venerable doctor, who at that time suffered under influenza,
that he died, at his house in Dean's Yard, Westminster, on the 24th of June
following. A work entitled, " Lectures on the Canons of the Old Testament/'
appeared after his death ; but his best monument unquestionably will be his
Chronology, the value of which has been so amply acknowledged by the world.
BLAIR, Patrick, M. D. an eminent botanist in the earlier period of the exis-
tence of that science in Britain, was first known as a practitioner of surgery and
physic at Dundee, where he brought himself into prominent notice as an anato-
mist, 1706, by the dissection of an elephant which died near that place. He
was a non-juror or Scottish episcopalian, and so far attached to the exiled family
of Stuart, as to be imprisoned during the insurrection of 1715, as a suspected
person. He afterwards removed to London, where he recommended himself to
the attention of the Royal Society by some discourses on the sexes of flowers.
His stay in London was short, and after leaving it, he settled at Boston in Lin-
colnshire, where Dr Pulteney conjectures that he practised physic during the
remainder of his life. The same writer, in his " Historical and Biographical
Sketches of English Botany," supposes that his death happened soon after the
publication of the seventh Decad of his Pharmacobotanologia, in 1728.
Dr Blair's first publication was eu titled, " Miscellaneous Observations in Phy-
sic, Anatomy, Surgery, and Botanicks, 8vo, 1718." In # the botanical part of
this work, he insinuates some doubts relating to the method suggested by Petion
and others, of deducing the qualities of vegetables from the agreement in natu-
ral characters ; and instances the Cynoglossum, as tending to prove the fallacy
of this rule. He relates several instances of the poisonous effects of plants, and
thinks the Echium Marinum (Pulmonaria Maritima of Liunseus) should be
ranked in the genus Cynoglossum, since it possesses a narcotic power. He de-
scribes and figures several of the more rare British plants, which he had dis-
covered in a tour made into Wales ; for instance, the Ruinex Digynus, Lobelia
Dortmanna, Alisma Ranunculoides, Pyrola Rotundifolia, Alchemilla Alpina, etc
But the work by which he rendered the greatest service to botany, originated
with his "Discourse on the Sexes of Plants," read before the Royal Society, and
afterwards greatly amplified, and published, at the request of several members of
that body, under the title of " Botanical Essays, 8vo, 1720." Ihis treatise is
divided into two parts, containing five essays; the three first respecting what is
proper to plants, and the two last, what is proper to plants and animals. 'Ihis
is acknowledged, by an eminent judge, to have been the first complete work, at
least in the English language, on that important department of botanical science,
the sexes of the plants. '1 he author shows himself well acquainted, in general,
with all the opinions and arguments which had been already circulated on the
same subject. The value of the work must not be estimated by the measure of
modern knowledge, though even at this day it may be read by those not criti-
cally versed in the subject, with instruction and improvement. A view of the
several methods then invented, cannot be seen so connectedly in any other Eng-
lish author. Dr Blair strengthened the arguments in proof of the sexes of
plants, by sound reasoning and some new experiments. His reasons against
Morland's opinion of the entrance of the Farina into the Vasculum Seminal*
Digitized by
Google
ROBERT BLAIR.
259
and bis refutation of the Lewenho&kian theory, have met with the sanction of the
greatest names in modern botany. Dr Blair's last distinct publication, which he
did not live to complete, was " Parmacobotanologia, or an Alphabetical and Clas-
sical Dissertation on all the British indigenous and garden plants of the New
Dispensatory," 4to, 1723 — 28. In this work, which was carried no further than
the letter H, the genera and species are described, the sensible qualities and
medicinal powers are subjoined, with the pharmaceutical uses, and the author
rlso notices several of the more rare English plants, discovered by himself in
the en?irons of Boston. Dr Blair's fugitive writings consist of various papers in
the Philosophical Transactions, of which one of the most remarkable is an ac-
count of the Anatomy and Osteology of the Elephant, drawn up from his obser-
vations in dissecting the animal above alluded to at Dundee.
BLAIR, Robert, an eminent divine of the seventeenth century, was the sixth
and youngest son of John Blair of Windyedge in Ayrshire, and Beatrix Muir,
a lady of the honourable house of Rowallan. He was born at Irvine in 1593,
and received his education at the college of Glasgow. After acting for some
time as assistant to a teacher in that city, he was appointed, in the twenty-second
year of his age, to be a regent or professor in the college. In 1616, he was
licensed as a minister of the gospeL Happening soon after to preach before the
celebrated Robert Bruce, and being anxious to have the judgment of so great
and good a man upon his discourse, he took die liberty of directly asking liim
how he liked the sermon : Bruce said, " I found your sermon very polished and
well digested, but there is one thing I did miss in it — to wit, the spirit of God ;
1 found not that" This criticism made a deep and useful impression upon the young
preacher. The prospects of Mr Blair at Glasgow were clouded in 1622, by the
accession of Cameron to the office of Principal in the College. This divine,
having been imbued in France with the tenets of Arminius, became a zealous
promoter of the views of the court, for the introduction of Episcopacy into Scot-
land. Blair speedily became obnoxious to his evil offices, and found it necessary
to resign his charge. For some years he officiated to a Presbyterian congregation
at Bangour in Ireland, but, in 1632, was suspended, along with the equally
famous preacher Livingstone, by the Bishop of Down. He then went ever to
court, to implore the interference of the King, who at length gave a favourable
answer to his petition, writing with his own hand upon the margin, " Indulge
these men, for they are Scotsmen ;» an expression certainly honourable to the
heart of the unfortunate monarch. Blair was one of those divines, who were
reputed in Scotland to have direct communications with heaven, and a power of
prophetic vision. While waiting anxiously for the return of his petition, he
asked, and, as it is recorded by his biographer, received, a sign from heaven,
assuring him that his wishes would be realised. He also " had from Ezekiel
xxiv. 16. a strange discovery of his wife's death, and the very bed whereon she
was lying, and the particular acquaintances attending her ; and although she was
in good health at his return home, yet in a little all this came to pass," 1 He
had not been long re-established, at Bangour, when the bishop found further
fault with him, and again sentenced him to be expelled. He now joined in a
scheme set on foot by various Presbyterian clergymen in similar circumstances, for
fitting up a ship, and emigrating to New England. But being driven back by a
storm, they conceived that the Almighty will was opposed to their resolution, and
accordingly abandoned the scheme. Blair returned to Scotland to mingle in the
tumultuous scenes of the covenant. He preached for some time at Ayr, and was
afterwards settled by the General Assembly at St Andrews. In 1640, he accom-
panied the Scottish army into England, and assisted at the negotiations for the
i Scots Worthies, new edition, 1827, p. 302.
Digitized by
Google
260 ROBERT BLAIR.
peace of Hippoiu After the first burst of the Irish rebellion of 1641, when the
Presbyterians supplicated the General Assembly for a supply of ministers, Blair
was one of those who went over. He soon returned, however, to his charge at
St Andrews. In autumn 1645, when the Scottish estates and General Assembly
were obliged by the prevalence of the plague at Edinburgh to sit in St Andrews,
Blair took a conspicuous part in the prosecution of Sir Robert Spottiswoode and
other adherents of Montrose, who had been taken prisoners at Philiphaugh. Sir
Robert, who had accompanied Montrose as a mere civilian, upon an embassage
from the King, was sentenced, by a flagrant violation of the law, to be beheaded
as a traitor. In reality this dignified and respectable person was sacrificed as
an atonement for the exertions of his father, Archbishop Spottiswoode, to intro-
duce Episcopacy. At this period, when toleration was sincerely looked upon as
a fatal and deadly error, it was conceived, that to permit this person to escape
would draw dowji the wrath of God upon the land. Blair, who entertained all
these notions in the most earnest manner, was nevertheless anxious that an exer-
tion should be made to turn Sir Robert from the errors of his faith, so that he
might at least die in the profession of the true religion. He therefore attended
him in jail, and even at the scaffold, trying all his eloquence to work a conver-
sion. Spottiswoode, who was ene of the most learned and enlightened men of
his age, appears to have looked upon these efforts in a different spirit from that
in which they were made. He was provoked, upon the very scaffold, to reject
the prayers of his pious monitor, in language far from courtly. Mr. Blair was
equally unsuccessful with Captain Guthrie, son of the ex-bishop of Moray, who
was soon after executed at the same place.
Blair was one of the Scottish divines appointed, in 1645, to reason the King
out of his Episcopal prepossessions at Newcastle. The celebrated Cant, one of
his co-adjutors in this task, having one day accused his Majesty of favouring
Popery, Mr Blair interrupted him, and hinted that this was not a proper time
or place for making such a charge. The unfortunate monarch, who certainly
had a claim to this amount upon die gratitude of Blair, appears to have felt the
kindness of the remark. At the death of Henderson, his Majesty appointed
Blair to be his successor, as chaplain for Scotland. In this capacity, he had
much in te. course with die King, who, one day, asked him if it was warrantable
in prayer to determine a controversy. Blair, taking the hint, said, that in the
prayer just finished, he did not think that he had determined any controversy.
" Yes,» said the King, " you determined the Pope to be Antichrist, which is a
controversy among divines." Blair said he was sorry that diis should be disputed
by his Majesty ; for certainly it was not so by his father. This remark showed
great acuteness in die divine, for Charles, being a constant defender of the
opinions of his father, whose authority he esteemed above that of all professional
theologians, was totally unable to make any reply. The constancy of the
King in his adherence to a church, which his coronation oath had obliged him
to defend, rendered, as is well known, all the advices of the Scottish divines
unavailing. After spending some months with his Majesty, in his captivity at
Newcastle, Mr Blair returned to Scotland.
In 1648, when Cromwell came to Edinburgh for the first time, the Commis-
sion of the Church sent three divines, including Mr Blair, to treat with him for
a uniformity of religion in England. The sectarian general, who looked upon
the Scottish Presbytery as no better than English Episcopacy, but yet was anxi-
ous to conciliate the northern divines, entertained this legation with smooth
speeches, and made many solemn appeals to God, as to the sincerity of his inten-
tions. Blair, however, had perceived the real character of Cromwell, and thought
it necessary to ask explicit answers to the three following categories : — I, VYlyit
Digitized by
Google
ROBERT BLAIR. 261
was hif opinion of monarchical government ? To this he answered, that he woe
for monarchial government; which exactly suited the views of the Scottish Pres-
byterians. 8, What was his opinion anent toleration? He answered confi.
dently that he was altogether against toleration ; which pleased, if possible, still
better. 3, What was his opinion concerning the government of the church ?
" Oh, now," said Cromwell, " Mr Blair, you article me too severely ; you must
pardon me that I give you not a present answer to this." When the deputation
left him Mr David Dickson said to Mr Blair, " I am glad to hear this man
speak no worse ; " to which the latter replied, " If you knew him as well as I,
you would not believe a word he says ; for he is an egregious dissembler."
Blair continued to be a zealous and useful minister during the usurpation of
Cromwell, but after the Restoration, fell speedily under the censure of his
metropolitan, Archbishop Sharpe. For some years, he had no regular place of
worship, but preached and ministered when he met with a favourable opportunity.
During his later years, being prohibited from coming within twenty miles of
St Andrews, he lived 'at Meikle Couston, in the parish of Aberdour, where he
died, August 27, 1666, in the 73d year of his age. He was buried in the
church-yard of Aberdour, where there is a small tablet to his memory.
Robert Blair was the author of a Commentary on the Book of Proverbs, and
also of some political pieces, none of which have come down to modern times.
His abilities were singularly revived in more than one branch of his numerous
progeny, particularly in his grandson, the author of " The Grave," and his two
great-grandsons, Dr Hugh Blair, and the late Robert Blair, President of the
Court of Session.
BLAIR, Robert, author of " The Grave, a Poem," was the eldest son of the
Rev. David Blair, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and chaplain to the
King, who, in his turn, was son to the subject of the preceding article. The
mother of the author of " The Grave," was a Miss Nisbet, daughter of Mr Nis-
bet of Carfin. He was born in the year 1699, and after the usual preparatory
studies, was ordained in 1731, minister of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian,
where he spent the remainder of his life. Possessing a small fortune in addition
to his stipend as a parish-clergyman, he lived, we are told, rather in the style
of a country gentleman than of a minister, keeping company with the neigh-
bouring gentry, among whom Sir Francis Kinloch of Gilmerton, patron of the
parish, was one of his warmest friends. Blair, we are further informed, was at
once a man of learning, and of elegant taste and manners. He was a botanist
and florist, which he showed in the cultivation of his garden; and was also
conversant in optical and microscopical knowledge, on which subjects he carried
on a correspondence with some learned men in England He was a man of Bin-
cere piety, and very assiduous in discharging the duties of his clerical functions.
As a preacher, he was serious and warm, and discovered the imagination of a
poet. He married Miss Isabella Law, daughter of Mr Law of Elvingston, who
had been Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh ; by
this lady, who survived him, he had five sons and one daughter, his fourth
son, who bore his own name, arose, through various gradations of honour at the
Scottish bar, to be President of the Court of Session.
Blair had turned his thoughts, at at early period of life, to poetry. While
still very young, he wrote some verses to the memory of his future father-in-law,
Mr Law, who was also his blood relation. We hare his own testimony for say*
ing, that his " Grave" was chiefly composed in that period of his life which
preceded his ordination as a parochial clergyman. An original manuscript of the
poem, in the possession of his son the Lord President, was dated 1741-3; and
it appears, from a letter written by the author to Dr Doddridge, in February
Digitized by
Google
262 HECTOR BOECE.
that year, iliat he had just been endeavouring, through the influence of his cor
respondent, Dr Isaac Waits, to induce the London booksellers to publish it, Ii
was rejected by two of these patrons of literature, to whom it had been recom-
mended by Dr Watts; but was finally printed at London, in 1743, "for
Mr Cooper." The author appears to have been seriously anxious that it should
become a popular work, for he thus writes to Dr Doddridge : — " In order to
make it more generally liked, I was obliged sometimes to go cross to my own
inclination, well knowing that, whatever poem is written upon a serious argtu
ment, must, upon that very account, be under serious disadvantages ; and there-
fore proper arts must be used to make such a piece go down with a licentious
age, which cares for none of those things." This is not very clearly intelligible,
but perhaps alludes to the plain, strong, rational, and often colloquially famihai
language of the poem, which the plurality of modern critics will allow to be its
best feature. " The Grave " is now to be esteemed as one of the standard clas-
sics of English poetical literature, in which rank it will probably remain longei
than many works of greater contemporary, or even present fame.
BOECE, Hector, whose name was otherwise spelled Boyis, Boyes, Boiss, and
Boice, an eminent, though credulous, historian, was born about the year 1465-6,
at Dundee, and hence he assumed the surname of Deidonanus. His family wen
possessed of the estate of Panbride, or Balbride, in the county of Angus, which ha£
been acquired by his grandfather, Hugh Boece, along with the heiress in marriage,
in consequence of his services to David II. , at the battle of Dupplin. The rudiments
of his education he received in his native town, which at that time, and for a
long time after, was celebrated for its schools : he afterwards studied at Aber-
deen, and finally at Paris, where, in 1497, he become a professor of philosophy
in the college of Montacute. Of a number of the years of his life about thn
period, there is evidently nothing to be told. The garrulous and sometime!
fabling Dr Mackenzie has filled up this part of his life with an account of hit
fellow-students at Paris, all of whose names, with one exception, have suiik into
oblivion. That exception is the venerated name of Erasmus, who, as a mark oJ
affection for Boece, dedicated to him a catalogue of his works, and maintained
with him in after life as regular a correspondence as the imperfect communication
of those times would permit In the year 1500, Bishop Elphinstone, who had
Just founded the College of Aberdeen, invited Boece home to be the principal
The learned professor, reluctant to quit the learned society he enjoyed at Paris,
was only persuaded to accept this invitation, as he informs us himself, " by means
of gifts and promises ;» the principal inducement must of course have been the
salary, which amounted to forty merks a-year — equal to two pounds three shil-
lings and fourpence sterling — a sum, however, which Dr Johnson remarks, was
then probably equal, not only to the needs, but to the rank of the President of
King's College.
On his arrival at Aberdeen he found, among the Chanon Regulars, a great
many learned men, and became a member of their order. From this order,
indeed, tne professors seem to have been selected. As colleague in his new
office, Hector Boece associated with himself Mr William Hay, a gentleman ot
the shire of Angus, who had studied along with him under the same masters both
at Dundee and Paris. Alexander Hay, a Chanon of Aberdeen, was the first
teacher of scholastic theology in that university. David Guthry and James Ogilvy
are mentioned as professors of civil and canon law ; but whether they were
contemporary teachers or succeeded each other in the same chair, is not quite
clear. Henry Spital was the first who taught philosophy at Aberdeen, and for
this purpose he wrote An Easy Introduction to the philosophy of Aristotle. Ano-
ther of the learned professors was Alexander Galloway, rector of Kinkell, who
Digitized by
Google
HECTOR EOECE.
263
was nuthor of a treatise on the JKbudae or Western Isles, with an account of the
Clag or Claik Geese, and the trees upon which they were found to grow • a work
no longer to be found, but the best parts of which are probably embodied in Boece's
history of Scotland. Arthur Boece, brother to the principal, was also one of his
assistants, lie was a tutor of the canon law, and a licentiate in the civil ; a
roan of great eloquence and singular erudition. Besides these, Boece has com-
memorated several others, who were his assistants, and reflected lustre upon the
dawn of learning in the north. Some of them were, according to the learned
principal's account, men of high eminence, whose influence was great in the days
in which they lived, and whose example extended even to after ages. He par-
ticularly refers to John Adam, who was the first to receive the degree of Doctor
of theology in the University ; after which he was made principal of the Domini-
can order, which, from the vicious lives, the poverty, and the ignorance of its
members, had sunk into great contempt, but which he raised into high respecta-
bility, both for piety and learning. On the death of his patron Bishop Klph in-
stone, in 1514, Boece, out of gratitude for his friendship, and respect for his
great learning and exemplary virtue, resolved to give to the world an account of
his life, in composing which he was so struck with the exemplary conduct of
others who had filled that see, that he determined to write the history of the
lives of the whole of the bishops of Aberdeen. This laborious undertaking he
completed in Latin, after the custom of the age, and gave to the world in the
year 1 5*22. It was printed at Paris by Badius Ascensius.
His next, and by far his greatest work, was a history of Scotland, from the
earliest accounts. To this work he was probably stimulated by the example of
John Mair or Major, a tutor of the Sorbonne, and principal of the college of
St Salvadore at St Andrews, whose history of Scotland, in six books, was pub-
lished at Paris in the year 1521. The Scotichronicon had been originally
written by John Fordun a canon of Aberdeen and continued by Walter Bower
or Bowmaker to the death of James I., nearly a century previous to this, as had
also the metrical Chronykil of Scotland by Andrew Winton prior of Lochleven,
but all of them written in a style beneath the dignity of history, and disguised
by the most contemptible fables. Mair was more studious of truth, but his narra-
tive is meagre and his style loose and disjointed. Boece was a man of high
talent, and one of the best Latin scholars which his country has at any period
produced ; but he was credulous in a high degree, and most unquestionably has
given his authority, such as it was, to many fables, if he did not himself abso-
lutely invent them; and he has rested the truth of his facts upon authors that
never existed except in his own imagination. Of the "Inglis lyis," which
Buchanan complains had cost him so much trouble to purge out of the " story of
Scotland/' perhaps he had not preserved the greatest number, but he certainly had
more of the " Scottis vanitie » than even that great man was willing to part with.
In imitation of some other historians he has introduced his history with the cos-
mography of the country, in which he has been followed by Buchanan. Some
passages we have selected from this part of the work, illustrative of his taste for,
and his knowledge of, natural history. The extracts are taken from the transla-
tion of John Bellenden archdeacon of Murray, which was made for the benefit
of King James V., who, from a defective education, was unable to read the ori-
ginal. That they may afford the reader a genuine specimen of our ancient
Scottish prose, we have given these few extracts in their original orthography
Die first is the result of the inquiries of Hector Boece into the claicks or clag-
geese that were supposed to grow upon trees.
" Sum men belevis that thir claiks grows on treis by the nobbiS) bot thair
opinion is vane. And because the nature and procreation of thir claikis is
gitized by GOOgle
264' HECTOR BOECB.
strange, we have maid na little laubore and diligence to serch the truth and veri-
tie thairof. We have sailit tlirow the seis quhare they ar brede, and find by
grit experience that the nature of the seis is inaire relevant cause of their pro-
creation than ony other thyng ; for all treis that are cussen in the seis be process
of tyrae apperis tint worme etin, and in the small hollis and boris thairof growis)
small wonnis. First Uiey schaw thair heid and feit, and last of all they schaw
thair plumis and wingis. Finally, quhen they are cumin to the just measure and
<juantitie of geis, they fle in the aire as othir fowlis. Thairfore because the rude
and ignorant pepyll saw oftymes the fruitis that fell off the treis quhilk stud*
nair the see, convertit within short tyme in geis, they belevit tliat Uiir geis grew
upon the treis hingand be thair nobbis, sic like as apillis and uthir fruitis, bot
thair opinion is nocht to be sustainit" This absurd nonsense is by the vulgar
in some places believed to this day. The Barnacle has somewhat the appearance
of a fowl in miniature inclosed in a shell, and this they suppose to be the young
of the claik-goose. The following will not appear less wonderful to the greater
part of readers than the procreation of the claiks, " The wolffis ar richt nov-
sum to the tame bestial in all pairts of Scotland, except ane pairt thairof, named
Glenmore ; in quhilk the tame bestial gets lytill damage of wyld bestial, espe-
cially of toddis. For ilk hous nurises ane young todd certane days, and luengia
the fleshe thairof after it be slane, with sic meit as tliey gif to thair fowlis or
uthir small beistis, and sae mony as eiU of this meit ar preservit twa months
after fra ony damage be the toddis, for toddis will gust na fleshe that gusts of
thair ain kynd ; and be thair bot ane beist or fowl that has nocht gustit of tliis
meit the todd will chais it out among ane thousand. 9 *
Could the following art be re-discovered it would be a great saving in the
article barley, and would besides render the malt duty of non-effect " In
all the desertis and muires of this realme growis an herbe namit hadder, bot
[without] ony seid, richt nutritive baith to beistis and fowlis, speciallie to beis.
This herbe in the month of Julie has ane floure of purpura hew, als sweet as
honey. The Pychts maid of this herbe stun tyme ane richt delicious and hal-
sunie drynk, nochtheless the manier of the making of it is perist be the exter-
mination of the said Pychtis, for they schaw nevir the craft of the making of
this drink bot to thair awn blude."
The following particular description of gum found among the isles, probably
ambergrese, is singularly characteristic of the author. " Amang the cragges of
the islis growis ane maneir of goum, hewit like gold, and sa attractive of nature
that it drawis strae, flax, or liemmis of claithis, to it, in the samin maneir as
does ane adamant stane. r rhis goum is generat of see froth quhilk is cussin up
be the continual repercussion of the wavis againisthe see wallis, and throw ithand
motion of the see it growis als teuch as glew, ay mair and mair, quhill at last it
falls down of the crag in the see. Twa yeir afore the cumin of this beuk to
light, arriwit ane grit lump of this goum in Buchquhane, als meikle as ane hors,
and was brocht hame by the herdis, quhilkis war kepand thair beistis to thair
housis and cussen in the fire, an<J because they fand ane smell and odour thair-
with, they schaw to thair maister, that it was ganand for the sens [incense] that
is maid in the kirks. Thair maister was ane rude man, as they war, and tuke bot
ane lytill pairt thairof. The maist pairt was destroyit aforo it cum to ony wyse
maneiris, and sa the proverb was verifyit, •The sou curis na balimv "
Of the miraculous the two following are tolerable specimens. " In Orkney is
ane grit fische, mair than onie hors, of marvelous and incredible sleip. This
fische, whan slie begins to sleip, fesnis hir teith fast on ane crag abave the water.
Als soon as the marineris fynis hir on sleip, they come with ane stark cabill in
ane boat, and efter they have borit ane hole threw hir tail, they fesne hir to fth*
Digitized by
Google
HECTOR BOECE.
265
tamyn. Ah soon aa this nsche is awalknit, s^e maks her to loup with grit fure
into the see, and fra she fynd hirseff fast she wrythis hir out of hir awn skin
and deis. Of the fatness that echo hes is maid oulie in grit quantitie, and of
hir skin is maid Strang cabills.*'
" In Murrayland, in the kirke of Pette, the bains of lytill John remains in
grit admiration of the pepilL He has been fourteen feit of hight, with square
members efleiring thairto. Sax yeirs afore the cumin of this werk to light, wo
saw his hansh bain als meikle as the haill bain of ane man, for we shut our arm
in the mouth thairof, by quhilk appeira how Strang and square pepill grew in
our region afore they war effeminat with lust and intemperance of mouth. »
Spare diet seems to have been, in the estimation of our author, the all in all of
human excellence, whether mentally or corporeally, and its disuse has certainly
never been more eloquently bewailed than in the following paragraph : — " I
belief nane hes now sic eloquence nor fouth [plenty] of language that can suffi-
ciently declare how far we in thir present dayis ar different fra the virtew and
temperance of our eldaris. For quhare our eldaris had sobreatie, we have
ebreitie and drunkness ; quhare they had plentie with sufficence, we have immo-
derate desiris with superfluities ; as he war maist nobyl and honest that could
devore and swelly maist ; throw quhilk we engorge and fillis ourself day and
nycht sa fall of meitis and drinkis, that we can nocht abstane quhill our wambe
be sa swon, that it is unable to ony virtewous occupation, and nocht allanerly
may surfect denners and sowpar suffice, bot also we must continue our shameful
vorasitie with dubell denners and sowpars, throw quhilk mony of us gangis to na
uUiir bisines bot to fill and tume our wambe. Na nsche in the see, nor fowle
in the aire, nor beist in the wood, may haif rest, bot ar socht here and thair to
satisfy the hungry appetitis of gluttonis. Nocht allanerly are wynis socht in
France, bot in Spayne, Italy, and Greece, and sumtyme baith Aphrick and
Asya ar socht for new delicious meitis and wynis to the samyn effect The
young pepill and bairnis follow thir unhappie customes of thair faderis, and
givis theniself to lust and insolence, havind all vertewous craftis in contemption,
and sa whan tyme of weir occurris, they are sa efTeminat and soft, that they pass
on hors as heavie martis, and are sae fat and grown that they may do na thing
in compare of the soverane manheid of thair antecessors. Als sun as they ar
returnit name becaus thair guddis ar not sufficient to nuris them in voluptuous
life and pleasur of thair wambe, they are given to all maneir of avarice, and
outhir castis them to be Strang and maisterful theves, or else sawers of dissention
araang the nobyllis."
Perhaps, after all, the last paragraph of Boece's Cosmography of Scotland
might have been sufficient to attest his character: " Thus it were needful to put
an end to our Cosmographie, were not an uncouth history tarryis a litill ray pen.
Mr Jame Ogilby, with uther nobylmen, wes send as ambassatouris frae the maist
nobill prince king James the feird to the kyng of France, and be tempest of see
they war constraint to land in Norway, quhare they saw nocht far fra thaim
mony wild men nakit and ruch, on the sam maner as they war painted. At
last they got advertising by land wart pepill that they war doum beestis under the
figur of men, quha in tyme of nicht usit to come in grit companies to land wart
villages, and quhan they fand na doggis they brek up doris, and slays all the
pepill that they fynd thair intilL They are of sa huge strenth that they pull up
treis by the rutis and fechts thairwith amang thaimsel£ The ambassatouris war
astonist at thir monstouris, and made strick watches with grit fyres birnand all
nicht, and on the morrow they pullit up sails and depairtit Forther the Nor*
way men schow that there wes also nocht far fra thaim an pepill that swomit all
the symer, like nsche in the see, leifand on nsche, bot in the winter, because the
Digitized by
Google
J
266 HECTOR BOECB.
water is cauld, they leif upon wild beistis that descendis fira the mountainis, and
sa endis here the Cosmography of Scotland. 9 ' Such are specimens of what passed
for veritable history in Scotland scarcely three centuries ago, and such was the
weakness of a man who was certainly in his own day, even by foreigners,
reckoned an ornament to his country. The truth is, knowledge in those days
was most deplorably limited by the difficulty of travelling, and the paucity of
books. A geographical writer sat in his study, ignorant personally of every
thing except what was immediately around him, and liable to be imposed upon
by the stories of credulous or lying travellers, which he had no means of correct-
ing or disproving. The philosophical writer was equally liable to be im-
posed upon by false and superstitious systems, which the age produced in great
abundance.
Boece's history was published at Paris in 1526, in a folio volume, under the
title of " Scotorum Histoids, a prima gentis origine, cum aliarum et rerum et
gentium illustratione non vulgari." This edition, which was printed by Badius,
contains seventeen books. A second was printed at Lausanne, and published at
Paris in 1574, about forty years after the death of Boece. In this, were added
the eighteenth and part of a nineteenth book, written by himself; and a con-
tinuation of the history to the end of the reign of James III., by Ferrari us, a
learned Piedmontese, who came to Scotland in 1528, in the train of Robert
Heid, Abbot of Kinloss, and afterwards Bishop of Orkney.
Soon after the publication of his history, (1527,) James V. bestowed upon
Boece a pension of £50 Scots yearly, which was to be paid by the sheriff ot
Aberdeen out of the king's casualties. Two years afterwards, a new precept was
issued, directing this pension to be paid by the customers of Aberdeen, until the
king should promote him to a benefice of 100 merks Scots of yearly value. By
a subsequent regulation, the pension was partly paid by the king's comptroller,
and partly by the treasurer.
As the payment appears for the last time in the treasurer's books for 1534, it
is probable that about that time the king carried into effect his intention of ex-
changing the pension for a benefice. The benefice so given was the Rectory or
Fyvie in Aberdeenshire, which he held at his death in 1536, as appears from
the record of the presentation of his successor. According to Gordon of Straloch,
the death of the reverend historian happened at Aberdeen ; he was then about
seventy years of age.
In estimating the character of Hector Boece, many circumstances must be
taken into account It is certainly impossible to read his history without feeling
contempt for his understanding as well as for his veracity ; yet when we consi-
der the night of ignorance, imbecility, and error, in which he lived, contempt
gives place to strong compassion, and we feel disposed to apologize for, rather
than to blame him. Lord Hailes has bitterly remarked that the Scots were re-
formed from popery, but not from Boece, and Pinkerton inveighs against him,
as " the most egregious historical impostor that ever appeared in any country!"
It is enough, liowever, for the vindication of this elegant writer, that he fulfilled
all the duties that could be demanded from a historian in his own time, and
could not be expected, to use a more just expression of Dalrymple, to be a phi-
losopher before philosophy revived. That he was incapable of designed impos-
ture, appears incontestibly proved by the testimonies of his contemporaries;
Erasmus, in particular, styling him a man who '* knew not what it was to make
a lie."
The highest honours have been bestowed upon the learning and genius of
Boece. The same distinguished friend says, that he was a man of an extraor-
dinary and happy genius, and possessed of great eloquence. Ferrarius, who
Digitized by
Google
IIECTOR BOECE. 267
continued his history, styles him a man of singular learning and erudition, and
one who had transmitted to posterity, in a most decent style, the noble and
heroic achievements of our kings and predecessors, and he believes that there is
no man on the like subject could have done it more significantly, or to better
purpose. Paul Jovius, in his description of Britain, says, that Boece wrote the
history of the Scots kings down to James HI. " with equal eloquence and dili-
gence." Of his description of Scotland, the rery subject upon which we have
animadverted, he says that he made it his business, being led on by curiosity and
the love of his country, to leave nothing unobserved that was praiseworthy, either
in our deserts or mountains, or in our lakes and seas. Joannes Gualterius says,
that he was exquisitely versed in all the pans of philosophy and theology, and a
most eminent historian. Bishop Lesly affirms that his style has the purity 01
Caesar's, and that for the nervousness of his words and reasonings, he seems to
have transferred to himself that of Livy. Bishop Spotswood says, that he was a
great philosopher, and much commended by Erasmus for his eloquence, and
though he has been by some English writers traduced for a fabulous and partial
historian, they who take the trouble to peruse his history will perceive this to
be spoken out of passion and malice, not from any just cause. Even Buchanan,
though he charges him with having, in his description of Scotland, delivered
some things not true, and with having drawn others into mistakes, as well as
with being over credulous of those to whom he committed the inquiry after many
of his matters, and in consequence published their opinions in preference to the
truth, admits that he was not only notably learned in the liberal sciences above
the condition of those times, but also of an exceeding courteous and humane
inclination." Bartholomew Latomas, a well known annotator on Cicero,
Terence, and Horace, honoured his memory by the following very beautiful
epitaph: —
Quisquis ad tumulum obstupescia istum,
Takiaa perpetna micare luce,
Lucem perpetuit adesse ted is ;
Et quis sic statuit cupis doceri?
Fiat : hie recubat Boethius Hector
Hie qui patriae sua) tenebras,
Atque Mas patriae nltore lingua
lnvecto Latin fugavit ultra
Tbulen et vitrei vigorls Arcton.
Persolvent Scotldes proin Camcenss,
Cum passim loclplant queantque haberi,
Romans; merltas suo Parent!
Gratia*, et tumulum volant ad istum,
Tadas perpetua micare luce,
Lucem perpetuus adesse tssdis.
To the merely English scholar, the following imitation will give some faint
idea of this epitaph.
That in this tomb the never-fading light
Streams bright from blazing torches unconsumed.
Art thou amazed, and would'st thou read aright?
Hector Boethius, know, liea here inhumed.
He who bis country's hills and vales illumed
With all the lustre of the Latian lore,
Chasing the shades of darkness deep, fore-doom'd,
Beyond the freezing pole and Thule's shore.
Digitized by
Google
268 DAVID BOGUE.
For this adorn'd, graceful in Roman dress,
Deserved thanks the Scotian Muses pay
To hiuo who gave them life — decreeing thus
Upon his tomb unfading light shall play,
From torches burning bright, that ne'er shall know decay.
BOGUE, David, the Father, as he has been called, of the London Missionary
Society, was born at Hallydown in the Parish of Coldinghani, Berwickshire, on
the 18th February, 1750. His father, who fanned his own estate, was descended
of a respectable family which had been long settled in the county. His studies
are said to hare been carried on at Dunse under the superintendence of
the distinguished Cruikshanks, not less remembered for the success of his
tuition, than for the severity of his discipline. He afterwards removed to
the university of Edinburgh, and studied moral philosophy under Adam Fergu-
son, the well-known author of the " History of Civil Society. 1 ' After undergo-
ing the usual course of study, and being licensed as a preacher in connection
with the church of Scotland, from want, perhaps, of very flattering prospects in
his native country, he removed to London (1771), and was for some time em-
ployed in the humble, but meritorious, capacity of usher in an academy at
Edmonton, afterwards at Hampstead, and finally with the Rev. Mr Smith of Cam-
berwell, whom he also assisted in the discharge of his ministerial duties both at
Camberwell and at Silver Street, London, where he held a lectureship, the duties
of which were at one time performed by the celebrated John Home. The seal
with which Mr Bogue discharged his duties in both of these capacities, contri-
buted not less to the satisfaction of Mr Smith, than to the increase of his own
popularity. At length, on the resignation of the minister of an independent
chapel at Gosport, Mr Bogue was unanimously chosen to fill the vacant charge.
The duties of his new situation were such as to require all the strength of judg-
ment and uncompromising inflexibility, tempered with Christian meekness, which
entered so largely into his character. The charge was one of great difficulty,
and of peculiar importance. The members of the congregation were divided
among themselves, and part of them had indeed withdrawn from the communion
altogether, during the ministry of his predecessor, and formed themselves into a
separate congregation, under a rival minister; but the exemplary conduct of
Mr Bogue, and his zeal in the discharge of his duties, were such, that he had
scarce occupied the pulpit twelve months when a re-union was effected. His
fame, as a solid and substantial scholar, and an evangelical and indefatigable
minister, now spread rapidly; and, early in March 1780, he entered into the
design of becoming tutor to an establishment for directing the studies of young
men destined for the Christian ministry in connexion with the Independent
communion. For the ability with which this establishment was conducted, both
now and when it afterwards became a similar one for those destined for mission-
ary labours, his praise is indeed in all the churches. It was in this period,
though occupied with the details of what most men would have felt as a full
occupation of their time, that his ever-active mind turned its attention to the
formation of a grand missionary scheme, which afterwards resulted in the Lon-
don Missionary Society. The influence which the establishment of this institu-
tion was calculated to have on the public mind was grand and extensive, and the
springing up of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract
Society at short intervals, proves how much good was effected by the impetus thus
given by one master-mind. In the establishment of both of these he likewise
took an active part, contributing to the latter body the first of a series of pub-
lications which have been of great usefulness. In the year 1796, Mr Bogue
was called upon to show whether he, who had professed himself such a friend
Digitized by
Google
DAVID BOGUE.
269
to missionary enterprise, was sufficiently imbued with the spirit of the gospel
to enable him to forsake home and the comforts of civilized society, to
devote himself to its sacred cause. The call alluded to, was made — and it
was not made in Tain — by Robert Haldane, Esq. of Airdrie, who, to furnish
funds for this grand enterprise, sold his estate. Their design was, in con-
junction with two other divines, who had recently left the established church of
Scotland, and become Independent ministers, to preach the gospel to the natives
of India, and likewise to form a seminary for the instruction of fellow-labourers
in the same field. The names of the two other ministers who intended to join
in this, perhaps the noblest enterprise of Christian philanthropy of which our
age can boast, and which will ever reflect a lustre on the church with which it
originated, were the Rev. Greville Ewing of Glasgow, and the Rev. W. Innes of
Edinburgh, But the design was frustrated by the jealousy of the East India
Company, who refused their sanction to the undertaking — a most fortunate cir-
cumstance, as it afterwards appeared, in as far as the missionaries were indivi-
dually concerned; for a massacre of Europeans took place at the exact spot
where it was intended the mission should have been established, and from which
these Christian labourers could scarcely have hoped to escape. In 1 815, Mr
Bogue received the diploma of Doctor of Divinity, from the Senatus academicus
of Vale college, North America, but such was the modesty of his character that
he always bore this honour meekly and unwillingly.
His zeal for the cause of missions, to which he consecrated his life, continued
to the last : he may truly be said to have died in the cause. He annually made
tours in different parts of the country in behalf of the Missionary Society ; and
it was on a journey of this kind, in which he had been requested to assist at a
meeting of the Sussex Auxiliary Society, that he took ill at the house of the
Rev. Mr Goulty of Brighton, and, in spite of the best medical advice, departed this
life in the morning of the 25th of October, 1825, after a short illness. The
effect of this event upon the various churches and religious bodies with which
Dr Bogue was connected, was great : no sooner did the intelligence reach Lon-
don, than an extraordinary meeting of the Missionary Society was called, (Octo-
ber 26,) in which resolutions were passed expressive of its sense of the bereave-
ment, and of the benefits which the deceased had conferred upon the society, by
the active part he had taken in its projection and establishment, and subsequently
11 by his prayers, his writings, his example, his journeys, and, above all, by his
direction and superintendence of the missionary seminary at Gosport"
The only works of any extent for which we are indebted to the pen of Dr
Bogue, are, " An Essay on the Divine Authority of the New Testament" " Dis-
courses on the Millennium," and a " History of Dissenters," which he undertook
in conjunction with his pupil and friend Dr Bennet The first of these he
commenced at the request of the London Missionary Society, with the purpose of
its being appended to an edition of the New Testament, which the society intended
to circulate extensively in France. In consideration of the wide diffusion of infide-
lity in that country, he wisely directed his attention to the evidence required by
this class of individuals— addressing them always in the language of kindness and
persuasion, " convinced,' 9 as he characteristically remarks, " that the wrath of
man worketh not the righteousness of God," — and if usefulness be taken as a
test of excellence, this work is so in a very high degree. No work of a religious
character, if we except perhaps the Pilgrim's Progress, has been so popular and
so widely circulated : it has been translated into the French, Italian, German,
and Spanish languages, and has been widely circulated on the continent of
Europe, where, under the divine blessing, it has been eminently useful. In
France, in particular, and on the distant shores of America, its influence has been
Digitized by
Google
270 THOMAS BOSTON.
felt in the convincing and converting of many to the cause of Christ It is, in-
deed, the most useful of all his works. The discourses on the millennium are
entirely practical and devotional, and though they want the straining for effect,
and the ingenious speculations with which some have clothed this subject, and
gained for themselves an ephemeral popularity — for to all such trickery Dr
Bogue had a thorough aversion — they will be found strikingly to display the en-
larged views and sterling good sense of their venerable author.
BOSTON, Thomas, an eminent doctrinal writer, was born in the town of
Dunse, March 7th, 1676, and received the rudiments of his education at his
native town, first under a woman who kept a school in his father's house, and
afterwards under Mr James Bullerwill, who taught what is called the grammar
school. His father was a nonconformist, and, being imprisoned for his recusancy,
retained the subject of this memoir in prison along with him, for the sake of
company ; which, notwithstanding his youth, seems to have made a lasting im-
pression on the memory of young Boston. Whether the old man was brought at
length to conform, we have not been able to learn ; but during his early years,
Mr Boston informs us that he was a regular attendant at church, " where he
heard those of the episcopal way, that being then the national establishment.*'
He was then, as he informs us, living without God in the world, and uncon-
cerned about the state of his souL Toward the end of summer, 1687, upon the
coming out of king James's indulgence, his father carried him to a presbyterian
meeting at Whitsome, where he heard the Rev. Mr Henry Erskine, who, before
the Restoration, was minister of Cornhill, and father to the afterwards celebrated
Messrs Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine. It was through the ministrations of this
celebrated preacher, that Boston waj first brought to think seriously about the
state of his soul, being then going in the twelfth year of his age. After this he
went back no more to the church till the curates were expelled, with whom, it
was the general report of the country, no ore remained after he became serious
and in earnest about the salvation of his soul. — While at the grammar school,
he formed an intimacy with two boys, Thomas Trotter and Patrick Gillies, who
regularly met with him, at stated times, in a chamber of his fathers house, for
reading the Scriptures, religious conference, and social prayer, " whereby," he
says, " they had some advantage, both in point of knowledge and tenderness."
Mr Boston made a rapid progress at the school, and before he left it, uhich was
in the harvest of 1689, had gone through all the books commonly taught in such
seminaries, and had even begun the Greek, in which language he had read part
of John's gospel, Luke, and the Acts of the apostles, though he was then but in
his fourteenth year. After leaving the grammar school, two years elapsed before
he proceeded farther in his studies, his father being doubtful if he was able to
defray the expense. This led to several attempts at getting him into a gra-
tuitous course at the university, none of which had any success. In the mean
time he was partly employed in the composing and transcribing law papers by a
Mr Cockburn, a public notary, from which he admits that he derived great
benefit in after life. All his plans for a gratuitous academical course having
failed, and his father having resolved to strain every nerve to carry him through the
classes, he entered the university of Edinburgh as a student of Greek, December
1st, 1691, and studied for three successive sessions. He took out his laureation
in the summer of 1694, when his whole expenses for fees and maintenance,
were found to amount to one hundred and twenty eight pounds, fifteen shillings
and eight pence, Scots money, less than eleven pounds sterling. That same sum-
mer he had the bursary of the presbytery of Dunse conferred on him as a
student of theology, and in the month of January, 1695, entered the theological
class in the college of Edinburgh, then taught by Mr George Campbell, u *
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BOSTON.
271
roan," says Boston, "of great learning, but excessively modest, undervaluing
himself, and much valuing the tolerable performances of his students. During
this session, the only one Boston appears to have regularly attended in divinity,
he also for a time attended the Hebrew class, taught by Mr Alexander Rule, but
remarks that he found no particular advantage from it After returning from
the university, Mr Boston had different applications made to him, and made
various attempts to settle himself in a school, but with no good effect, and in the
spring of 1696, he accepted of an invitation from Lady Mersington to superin-
tend the education of her grand-child, Andrew Fletcher of Aberlady, a boy of
nine years of age, whose father having died young his mother was married again
to lieutenant-colonel Bruce of Kennet, in Clackmannanshire. This he was the
rather induced to undertake, because the boy being in Edinburgh at the High
School, it gave his preceptor the power of waiting upon the divinity lectures in
the college. In less than a month, however, his pupil was taken home to Kerf-
net, whither Boston accompanied him, and never had another opportunity of
attending the college. In this situation Mr Boston continued for about a year,
and during that period was pressed, once and again, by the united presbyteries of
Stirling and Dumblane, to take license as a preacher, which, for reasons not very
obvious, he declined. In the month of March, 1697, he returned to Dunse, and
by his friend Mr Golden, minister of that place, was induced to enter upon trials
for license before the united presbyteries of Dunse and Ghumside, by which he
was licensed as a probationer in the Scottish church, June 15th, 1697. In this
character Mr Boston officiated, as opportunity offered, for two years and three
months, partly within the bounds of his native presbytery, and partly within the
bounds of the presbytery of Stirling. It was first proposed by his friends of the
presbytery of Dunse to settle him in the parish of Foulden, the episcopal incum-
bent of which was recently dead, and, on the first day he officiated there, he gave
a remarkably decisive proof of the firmness of his principles. The episcopal
precentor was, under the protection of the great men of the parish, still con-
tinued. Boston had no freedom to employ him without suitable acknowledge-
ments, which, not being clothed with the ministerial character, he could not
fake. On the morning, therefore, of the first Sabbath, he told this official, that
he would conduct the psalmody himself, which accordingly he did, and there was
nothing said about it In the parish of Foulden, however, he could not be
settled without the concurrence of Lord Ross, who had had a great hand in the
enormous oppressions of the preceding period. A personal application on the
part of the candidate was required by his lordship, and the presbytery were ur-
gent with Boston to make it, but to this he could not bring his mind, so the pro-
ject came to nothing. He was next proposed for the parish of Abbey ; but this
scheme also was frustrated through the deceitfulness of the principal heritor, who
was a minister himself, and found means to secure the other heritors, through
whose influence he was inducted by the presbytery to the living, though the
parishioners were reclaiming, and charging the presbytery with the blood of their
souls, if they went on with the settlement " This," remarks Boston, " was the
ungospel-like way of settling, that even then prevailed in the case of planting of
churches, a way which I ever abhorred." After these disappointments, Mr Bos-
ton removed to his former situation in Clackmannanshire, where he remained for
a twelvemonth, and in that time was proposed for Carnock, for Clackmannan,
and for Dollar, all of which proposals were fruitless, and he returned to Dunse in
the month of May, 1699.
Mr Boston had no sooner returned to his native place, than he was proposed
by his friend Mr Colden for the parish of Simprin, where, after a great deal of
hesitation on his part, and some little chicanery on the part of the presbytery
Digitized by
Google
272
THOMAS BOSTON.
and the people, he was ordained minister, September 21, 1699. In Simprin
he continued conscientiously performing the duties of his calling till the year
1707, when, by synodical authority, he was transported to Ettrick. His intro-
duction to his new charge took place on the 1st of May that year, the very day
when the union between Scotland and England took effect; on which ac-
count he remarks that he had frequent occasion to remember it, the spirits of
the people of Ettrick being imbittered on that event against the ministers of
the church, which was an occasion of much heaviness to him, though he had nerer
been for the union, but always against it from the very beginning. Simprin,
now united to the parish of Swinton, both of which make a rery small parish,
contained only a few families, to whose improvement he was able greatly to con-
tribute with comparatively little exertion, and the whole population seem to have
been warmly attached to him. Ettrick, on the contrary, is a parish extending
nearly ten miles in every direction, and required much labour to bring the
people together in public, or to come in contact with them at their own house.
Several of them, too, were society men or old dissenters, who had never joined
the Revolution church from what they supposed to be radical defects in her con-
stitution, as well as from much that had all along been offensive in her general
administration. Of her constitution, perhaps, Mr Boston was not the warmest
admirer, for he has told us in his memoirs, that, after having studied the subject
of baptism, he had little fondness for national churches, strictly and properly so
called, and of many parts of her administration he has again and again expressed
decided disapprobation ; but he had an undefined horror at separation, common
to the greater part of the presbyterians of that and the preceding generation,
which led him to regard almost every other ecclesiastical evil as trifling. Of
course, he was shocked beyond measure with the conduct of a few of the families
of Ettrick, who chose to adhere to Mr John Macmillan, or Mr John Hepburn,
and has left on record accounts of some interviews with them, shortly after enter-
ing upon his charge, which, we have no hesitation in saying, bring not only his
candour, but his veracity, very strongly into question. He was, however, a con-
scientious and diligent student, and had already made great progress in the
knowledge of the doctrine of grace, which seems to have been but imperfectly
understood by many very respectable men of that period. In this he was greatly
forwarded by a little book, " The Marrow of Modern Divinity/' which he found
by accident in the house of one of his parishioners in Simprin, and which had
been brought from England by a person who had been a soldier there in the
time of the civil wars. Of this book he says, " I found it to come close to the
points I was in quest o£ and showed the consistency of those which I could not
reconcile before, so that I rejoiced in it as a light which the Lord had seasonably
struck up to me in my darkness." The works of Jerome Zanchrius, Luther on
the Galatians. and Beza's Confession of Faith, which he seems to have fallen in
with at the same period, (that is, while he was yet in Simprin, about the year
1700,) also contributed greatly to the same end, and seems to have given a cast
of singularity to his sermons, which was highly relished, and which rendered
them singularly useful in promoting the growth of faith and holiness among his
hearers. In 1702, he took the oath of allegiance to queen Anne, the sense of
which, he says, he endeavoured to keep on his heart, but never after took an-
other oath, whether of a public or private nature. He was a member of the
first general assembly held under that queen in the month of March, 1703, of
which, as the person that was supposed to be most acceptable to the commissioner,
the earl of Seafield, Mr George Meldrum was chosen moderator. The declara-
tion of the intrinsic power of the church was the great object of the more faith-
ful part of her ministers at this time; but they were told by the leading party,
Digitized by
Google
THOMAS BOSTON.
273
that they already possessed it, and that to make an act asserting what they pos-
sessed, was only to waste time. While this very assembly, however, was in
the midst of a discussion upon an overture for preventing the marriage of Pro-
testants with papists, the commissioner, rising from his seat, dissolved the assem-
bly in her majesty's name. " This having come," Boston remarks, " like a clap of
thunder, there were from all corners of the house protestations offered against it,
and for asserting the intrinsic power of the church, with which," he adds, " 1
joined in : but the moderator, otherwise a most grave and composed man, being in
as much confusion as a schoolboy when beaten, closed with prayer, and got away
together with the clerk, so that nothing was then got marked. This was one of
the heaviest days," he continues, " that ever 1 saw, beholding a vain man tramp-
ling under the privileges of Christ's house, and others crouching under the bur-
den ; and I could not but observe how Providence rebuked their shifting the
act to assert as above said, and baffled their design in the choice of the modera-
tor, never a moderator since the revolution t > this day, so far as 1 can guess,
having been so ill-treated by a commissioner." This reflection in his private
journal, however, t\ith the exception of an inefficient speech in his own synod, ap-
pears to be all that ever Boston undertook for the vindication of his church on this
occasion. It does not indeed appear that his feelings on this subject were either
strong or distinct, as we find him at Ettrick, in the month of January, 1708, declar-
ing that he had no scruple in observing a fast appointed by the court, though he
thought it a grievance that arose from the union, and the taking away of the
privy council. On this occasion he acknowledges that many of his hearers broke
off and left him, several of whom never returned, but he justifies himself from
the temper of the people, who, had he yielded to them in this, would have dic-
tated to him ever afterwards. This same year he Mas again a member of the
General Assembly, where application was made by persons liable to have the
abjuration oath imposed upon them for an act declaring the judgment of the
Assembly regarding it The Assembly refused to do any thing in this matter ;
which was regretted by Mr Boston, and he states it as a just retribution which
brought it to ministers' own doors in 1712, only four years afterwards. On
this occasion also he was in the Assembly, but whether as a spectator or a mem-
ber he does not say. The lawfulness of the oath was in this Assembly keenly
disputed, and Boston failed not to observe that the principles on which the
answers to the objections were founded were of such latitude, that by them any
oath might be made passable. They were indeed neither more nor less than
the swearer imposing his own sense upon the words employed, which renders an
oath altogether nugatory. In this manner did Principal Carstairs swear it before
the justices in Edinburgh, to the great amusement of the Jacobites, and being
clear for it, he, in the assembly, by his singular policy, smoothed down all
asperities, and prevented those who had not the same capacity of conscience
from coming to any tiling like a rupture with their brethren, for which cause,
says Boston, I did always thereafter honour him in my heart] Boston, nevertheless,
abhorred the oath, and could not bring his mind to take it, but determined to
keep his station in the church, till thrust out of it by the civil authorities. lie
made over to his eldest son a house in Dunse, which he had inherited from his
father, and made an assignation of all his other goods to his servant, John Cur-
rie, so that, when the law took effect, he might elude the penalty of five hundred
pounds sterling, that was attached to the neglect or the refusal to take the oath
within a prescribed period. The memory of the late persecuting reigns was,
however, still fresh, and no one appeared willing to incur the odium of imitat-
ing them; and, so far as we know, the penalty was never in one single instance
i. 2 m
Digitized by
Google
214, THOMAS BOSTON,
exacted The uibjecl of this memoir, at least, was never brought to any real
trouble respecting it.
Amid all Mr Boston's attention to public affairs be was still a most diligent
minister; :md instead of relaxing any tiling of his labours since leaving Shnp-
riu. had greatly increased them by a habit lie had fallen intotif wriLin* out his
scnuous in full, which in the earlier part of Ins ministry tie scarcely ever did.
This prepared tlie way for the publication of his sermons from the press, by
which they have been made extensively use tub The first suggestion of this kind
seems to have mine from bis friend Dr Trotter, to vrhtun be paid a visit at Dunsc,
after assisting at l be sacrament at Kelso, in the mouth of October, 1711; on
which occasion the notes of die sermons be had preached on the state of man
were left w itb lite Doctor for his perusal , and they formed (be foundation of that
ftdmi ruble work, the fourfold State, which was prepared for publication before
the summer of 1711, but was laid aside for fear of the Pre tender coming in and
rendering the side Impossible. In the month of August, the same year, he
preached his action sermon from Hosca it, ID; which met with so much accep-
tance, that lie was requested for a copy with a view to publication. 'Hiis he
complied with, and in the course of the following winter, it was printed under
the title of the Ei lerltwt irttj E&ptmJtai* t and met with n very good reception,
twelve hundred copiei being sold in a short time, which paved lite way fur the
publ icatiun of the Fourfold State, and was a means of urging him forward in the
most important of all his public appearances-, that in defence of the A I arrow ol
Modern Divinity.
During the insurrection of 17 15 t ho was trembled not a little with the want
of military ardour among his parishioners of Elirick, and, in the year 1717, with
an attempt to have him altogether against lib inclination transported to the parish
of CJoscb mn, in thimlYies-fhire. In the meantime, the retrrfold State had been
again and again transcribed, and had been revised by Mr John Flint at Kdiu*
burgli ; and, iu 171*% his friends, Messrs Simeon, Gabriel Wilson, and Henry
Davidson, offered to advance money to defray the expense of its publication.
The MS +I however, was sent at last to Mr Hubert Wighunan, treasurer to tike
city of Edinburgh, who ultimately became the prefacer and tlve publisher of the
book, with many of bis own emendations, in consequence of which there was
a necessity for cancelling a number of sheets and reprinting them, before the
author could allow it to come to the public ; nor was it thoroughly purged till
it came to a second edition. The first came out in 1720.
The oatbof abjuration, altered, m a sm all degree, at the petit ion of the greater
part of the presbyter inn nonjurors, was again imposed upon ministers in I he
year 1719, when the most of ihe ministers took it, to the great grief of many of
their pen pi?, ami to the additional persecution of Ihe few who still wanted free-
dom to take it, of which number Mr Boston still continued to be one. Mr Bos-
ton was* at this time employed by the synod to examine some overtures from the
assembly regarding discipline; and having been, from his en trance on the min-
istry, dissatisfied with the mnnner of admiring to the Lurd** table, and planting
vacant churches, be set himself to have these matters rectified, by remarks upon,
and enlargements of these customs. The synod did not, however, even so much
as cali for them, and, though I bey were by the presbytery laid before the com-
mission, they were never taken into consideration. " And 1 apprehend," says
Host on t lt that the malady will be incurable till the present constitution be vio-
lently thrown down/' 'Xliougli the judicatures were thus careless of any im-
provement in discipline, they were not less so with regard to doctrine. The
Assembly, in 1717, had dismissed professor Siruson without censure, though he
bad gene far into the regions of vrror j and they condemned tho whole presby-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
THOMAS BOSTON.
275
tery of Auchterarder, for denying that any pro-requisite qualification was necessary
on the part of the sinner for coming to Christ; and this year, 1719, they, at the
instigation of Principal Haddow of St Andrews, commenced a prosecution against
Mr James Hog of Carnock, who had published an edition of the Marrow, Alex-
ander Hamilton minister of Airth, James Brisbane minister at Stirling, and John
Warden minister at Gargunnock, who had advocated its principles : which ended
in an act of the General Assembly, forbidding all under their inspection in time
coming to teach or preach any such doctrines. This act of Assembly was by
Boston and his friends brought before the presbytery of Selkirk, who laid it
before the synod of Merse and Teviotdale. Nothing to any purpose was done
in the synod ; but the publicity of the proceedings led to a correspondence with
Mr James Hog, Mr Ralph Erskine, and others, by whom a representation and peti-
tion was given into the Assembly, 1721. This representation, however, was
referred to the commission. When called before the commission, on Thursday,
May 1 8, Mr Hog not being ready, and Mr Bonar of Torphichen gone home,
Mr Boston had the honour of appearing first in that cause. On that day they
were borne down by universal clamour. Next day, however, Principal Had-
dow was hardly pushed in argument by Mr Boston, and Logan of Culcross was
completely silenced by Mr Williamson of Inveresk. The commission then gave
out to the twelve representing brethren twelve queries, to which they were
required to return answers against the month of March next These answers,
luminous and brief beyond any thing of the kind in our language, were begun
by Mr Ebenezer Erskine, but greatly extended and improved by Mr Gabriel
Wilson of Maxton. For presuming thus to question the acts of Assembly, the
whole number were admonished and rebuked. Against this sentence they gave
in a protestation, on which they took instruments in due form; but it was not
allowed to be read. In the meantime, Mr Boston prepared an edition of the
Marrow, illustrated by copious notes, which was published in 1726, and has
ever since been well known to the religious public The Assembly, ashamed,
after all, of the act complained of, remodelled it in such a way as to abate some-
what its grossness, though, in the process, it lost little of its venom.
Following out his plan of illustrating gospel truth, Boston preached to his peo-
ple a course of sermons on the covenants of works and of grace, which have long
been hi the hands of the public, and duly prized by judicious readers. His last
appearance in the General Assembly was in the year 1729, in the case of Pro-
fessor Simson, where he dissented from the sentence of the Assembly as being no
just testimony of the church's indignation against the dishonour done by the said
Mr Simson to our glorious Redeemer, the Great God and our Saviour, nor agree-
able to the rule of God's word in such cases, nor a fit means to bring the said
Mr Simson himself to repentance, of which, he added, he had yet given no evi-
dence. This dissent, however, for the sake of the peace of the church, which
some said it might endanger, he did not insist to have recorded on the Assembly's
books. His last public work was a letter to the presbytery, which met at Sel-
kirk, May 2, 1732, respecting the overture for settling vacant parishes; which
breathes all the ardour and piety of his more early productions, and in which he
deprecates the turning of that overture into a standing law, as what cannot fail
to be the ruin of the church, and he prays that his letter may be recorded as a
testimony against it His health had been for a number of years declining ; he
was now greatly emaciated ; and he died on the twentieth of May, 1732, in the
fifty-sixth year of his age. Mr Boston was married shortly after his settlement
at Simprin to Katharine Brown, a worthy pious woman, by whom he had ten
children, four of whom only survived him. Thomas, the youngest, was ordained
to the pastoral care of the parish of Oxnam ; but removing thence to Jedburgh
Digitized by
Google
276 JAMES BOSWELL.
without a presentation from the patron, or the leave of his presbytery, became
one of the fathers of the Relief church. Of the fortunes of his other children
we have not been informed. Of the character of Boston there can be but one
opinion. Ardent and pious , his whole life was devoted to the promoting of the
glory of God and the best interests of his fellow-men. As an author, though he
has been lowered by the publication of too many posthumous works, he mutt
yet be admitted to stand in the first class. Even the most incorrect of his pieces
betray the marks of a highly original and powerful mind, and his Fourfold
State of Man cannot fail to be read and admired so long as the faith of
the gospel continues to be taught and learned in the language in which it is
written. 1
BOSWELL, Jambs, the friend and biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson, was born
at Edinburgh, October 29, 17 10.
The Bos we Us, or Bosvilles, are supposed to have "come in with the Con-
queror,'* and to have migrated to Scotland in the reign of David I. [1124-53].
The first man of the family, ascertained by genealogists, was Robert Boseville,
who figured at the court of William the Lion, and became proprietor of some
lands in Berwickshire. Roger de Boswell, sixth in descent from this person,
lived in the reign of David II., and acquired lands in Fife. His descendant,
Sir John Boswell, who flourished in the end of the fourteenth or beginning of
the fifteenth century, acquired the lands of Balmuto in Fife, which was after-
wards the principal title of the family. David Boswell of Balmuto, the eleventh
representative of the family in succession, had, besides his heir, Alexander, who
succeeded to the family estates, a son named Thomas, who became a servant of
James IV., and was gifted by that monarch with the lands of Auchinleck, in
Ayrshire, which were then in the crown by recognition.* The charters, one of
which is dated in 1504, the other in 1505, bear that the lands were granted,
" pro bono et gratuito servitio nobis per dilectum nostrum farailiarem Thomam
Boswell impends," — and " pro bono servitio, et pro singulari favore quem erga
ipsum Thomam gerimus." The lands of Auchinleck had previously belonged to
a family of the same name. Thomas Boswell, first of Auchinleck, married a
daughter of Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudoun ; and fell bravely fighting with his
niaster at Flodden. The estimation and quality of his descendants may be
exemplified by the dignity of the families into which they married in succession.
The following are the fathers of their respective brides: — James Earl of Arran,
1 Mr Boston's name is still held in great reverence by the people of the south of
Scotland. The editor of this work well recollects two questions which, in his youth, used to
pass among the boys at a town not far from Ettrick — "who was the best, and who
the worst man that ever lived? 1 ' — their minds evidently reflecting only upon modern
times. The answer to the first query gave, * Mr Boston, the minister of Ettrick :" the
worst man, I regret to say, was the Earl of March, father of the last Duke of Queensberry,
whose fame, it may be guessed, was purely locaL
* Thomas Boswell is frequently mentioned in the Treasurer's books under the reign of
James IV. On the 15th May, 1504, is an entry, " Item, to Thomas Boswell, he laid downe
in Leith to the wife of the kingis innis, and to the boy rane the kingis hors, 18*." On the
2nd August, is the following: ** Item, for twa hidis to be jakkis to Thomas Boswell wad
Watte Trumbull, agane the Raid of Eskdale, [an expedition against the border thieves,]
565." On the 1st of January, 1504-5, " Item, to Thomas Boswell and Pate Sinclair to
by thaim daunsing geir, 28*. Under December 31st, 1505, * Item, to SO dosane of bell is
for dansaris, delyverit to Thomas Boswell, 4/. 10s." Mr Pitcairne, from whose valuable
" Collection of Criminal Trials" these extracts are made, seems to think that Thomas Bos-
well was a minstrel to King James : it is perhaps as probable that he was chief of the royal
train of James. If such he really was, and if the biographer of Johnson had been aware of
the fact, he would hare perhaps considered it a reason for moderating a little his family
pride — though we certainly must confess that there is not altogether wanting some analogy
between the professions of Laird Thomas and Laird James.
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BOSWELL. 277
who married the Princess Mary, daughter of king James II., and was ancestor
of the Hamilton family ; Sir Robert Dalzell of Glenae, ancestor of the Earls of
Carnwath [the same gentleman had for his second wife, a daughter of Lord
Ochiltree ;] Crawford of Kerse ; Sir John Wallace of Cairnhill [2nd wife, a
daughter of Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackball ] ; Cunningham of ttlengarnock ;
Hamilton of Dalzell ; Earl of Kincardine ; Colonel John Erskine, grandson of
the lord treasurer Earl of Mar. '
James Boswell was the eldest son of Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, and
of Euphemia Erskine. 1 The father was an advocate In good practice at the Scot-
tish bar; who was, in 1754, elevated to the bench, taking, on that occasion, the
designation of Lord Auchinleck. James Boswell, father of Lord Auchinleck,
had also been a Scottish barrister, and, as we learn from Lord Karnes, one
of the best of his time ; his wife was a daughter of Alexander Bruce, second
Earl of Kincardine, whose mother was Veronica, a daughter of the noble house
of Sommelsdyk in Holland. For an account of Auchinleck, reference may be
made to Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands.
The father of the biographer was a stern and rigid presbyterian, and a zeal-
ous supporter of the House of Hanover : young Boswell, on the contrary, from
his earliest years, showed a disposition favourable to the high church and the
family of Stuart Dr Johnson used to tell the following story of his biographer's
early years, which Boswell has confessed to be literally true. " In 1745, Bos-
well was a fine boy, wore a white eookade, and prayed for King James, till one
of his uncles (General Cochran) gave him a shilling, on condition that he would
pray for King George, which he accordingly did." " So you see," adds Bos-
well, who has himself preserved the anecdote, " whig* of all ages are made in
the earns way."
He received the rudiments of his education at the school of Mr James fylun-
dell, in Edinburgh, a teacher of considerable reputation, who gave elemental
instruction to many distinguished men. He afterwards went through a complete
academical course at the college of Edinburgh, where he formed an intimacy
with Mr Temple of Allardeen in Northumberland, afterwards vicar of St Gluvies
in Cornwall, and known in literary history for a well-written character of Gray,
which has been adopted both by Dr Johnson and Mason in their memoirs of that
poet Mr Temple and several other young English gentlemen were fellow-stu-
dents of Boswell, and it is supposed that his intercourse with them was the ori-
ginal and principal cause of that remarkable predilection for English society and
manners, which characterized him through life.
Boswell very early began to show a taste for literary composition ; in which
'* was encouraged by Lord Somerville, of whose flattering kindness he ever
preserved a grateful recollection. His lively and sociable disposition, and pas-
sion for distinguishing himself as a young man of parts and vivacity, also led
him, at a very early period of life, into the society of the actors in the theatre,
with one of whom, Mr David Ross, he maintained a friendship tiU the death of
that individual, in 1791, when Boswell attended as one of the mourners at his
funeral While still at college, Lady Houston, sister of Lord Cathcart, put
under his care a comedy, entitled, " The Coquettes, or the Gallant in the Clo-
set,*' with a strict injunction that its author should be concealed. Boswell
exerted his interest among the players to get this piece brought out upon the
stage, and made himself further conspicuous by writing the prologue, which was
spoken by Mr Parsons. It was condemned at the third performance, and not
unjustly, for it was found to be chiefly a bad translation of one of the worst plays
i He had two brothers; Joan, a lieutenant in the army ; David, a merchant at Valencia
In Spain.
Digitized by
Google
278 JAMES BOSWELL.
of Corneille. Such, however, was the fidelity of Boswell, that, though universally
believed to be the author, and consequently laughed at in the most unmerciful
manner, he never divulged the name of the fair writer, nor was it known till
she made the discovery herself.
After studying civil law for some time at Edinburgh, Boswell went for one
winter to pursue the same study at Glasgow, where he, at the same time, attended
the lectures of Dr Adam Smith on moral philosophy and rhetoric. Here he con-
tinued, as at Edinburgh, to adopt his companions chiefly from the class of Eng-
lish students attending the university ; one of whom, Mr Francis Gentleman, on
publishing an altered edition of Southern's tragedy of Oroonoko, inscribed it to
Boswell, in a poetical epistle, which concludes thus, in the person of his Muse :
* But where, with honest pleasure, she can And,
Sense, taste, religion, and good nature joined.
There gladly will she raise her feeble voice,
Nor fear to tell that Boswell is her choice."
Inspired, by reading and conversation, with an almost enthusiastic notion of
London life, Boswell paid his first visit to that metropolis in 1760, and his
ardent expectations were not disappointed.' The society, amusements, and
general style of life which he found in the modern Babylon, and to which he
was introduced by the poet Derrick, were suited exactly to his taste and temper.
He had already given some specimens of a talent for writing occasional essays
and poetical jeux d'esprit, in periodical works, and he therefore appeared before
the wits of the metropolis as entitled to some degree of attention. He was
chiefly indebted, however, for their friendship, to Alexander, Earl of Eglintoune,
one of the most amiable and accomplished noblemen of his time, who, being
of the same county, and from his earliest years acquainted with the family
of Auchinleck, insisted that young Boswell should have an apartment in his
house, and introduced him, as Boswell himself used to say, "into the circle
of the great, the gay, and the ingenious. 9 * Lord Eglintoune carried his young
friend along with him to Newmarket ; an adventure which seems to have made
a strong impression on Boswell's imagination, as he celebrated it in a poem
called " the Cub at Newmarket/' which was published by Dodsley, in 176*2, in
4to. The cub was himself as appears from the following extract :
<( Lord Eglintoune, who loves, you know,
A little dash of whim or so,
By chance a curious cub had got,
On Scotia's mountains newly caught.''
In such terms was Boswell content to speak of himself in print, even at this early
period of life, and, what adds to the absurdity of the whole affair, he could not
rest till he had read " the Cub at Newmarket " in manuscript to Edward Duke
of York, and obtained permission from his royal highness to dedicate it to him.
It was the wish of Lord Auchinleck that his son should apply himself to the
law, a profession to which two generations of the family had now been devoted,
and in which Lord Auchinleck thought that his own eminent situation would be
of advantage to the success of a third. Boswell himself, though, in obedience
to his fathers desire, he had studied civil law at the colleges of Edinburgh and
Glasgow, was exceedingly unwilling to consign himself to the studious life of a
barrister at Edinburgh, where at this time the general tone of society was the
very reverse of his own temperament, being (if we are to believe Provost Creech)
characterized by a degree of puritanical reserve and decorum, not much removed
from the rigid observances of the preceding century, while only a very small
circle of men of wit and fashion — an oasis in the dreary waste— carried on a
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BOSWELL.
270
clandestine ex i sic nee, under the ban, as it were, of the rest of the uorliL Bos-
well had ;ilrc. uly cast his eyes upon the situation of an officer in the foot-gourds,
as calculated to afford him tliat indulgence in London society , which he so much
desired, while it was, at the same time, not incompatible with his prospects as a
Scottish country gentleman.
It was with some difficulty that his father prevailed upon lion to return to
Scotland, and consult about the choice of a profession* The old judge even
look the trouble to put his sou through a regular course of instruction in the law,
in the hope of inspiring him with an attachment to it. 13 ut though he was
brought tile length of standing Ids trials as a civilian before a committee of the
Faculty, he could not be prevailed upon to enter heartily into his father's vie us.
During part of the years 17 til and 1762, while con lined to Edinburgh, and
to tills partial and unwilling study of the law, he contrived to alleviate the irk-
someness of his situation by cultivating the society of the illustrious men who now
cast a kind of y lory over Scotland and Seotaiineii. Eames, Blair, Robertson, Hume,
and Uolryinulu, though greatly his seniors, were pleaded to honour him with their
friendship ; nioiv, perhaps, on account of his worthy and dignified parent, than
on his owu. He also amused hi nisei f at (Jus time in contributing jeux d'esprit
to u a Collection of Original Poems by Scottish Gentlemen,** of which two volumes
were successively published by Alexander Donaldson, an enterprising bookseller ;
being an imitation of the u Miscellanies " of Oodsley, Several of the pieces in
this collection were noticed very favourably in the Critical He view; and the
whole is now valuable as a record of Scottish manners at a particular era. Bos-
well's pieces were distinguished only by his initials, in one, he characterises
himself, saying, as to ta bells passion ,
J3 os well does women injure.
And novor unee means to deeelva ;
Hit's iii Ii.ivl- with al leail half S H&rej
If they're serious, ho laugh* iti Ms sleeve.
With regard to a more prominent trait of his character, he adds—
BoswoJJ Js inudest enough.
Himself not guile Ptuebus hu thinks,
# # # #
He hits all the bright fancy of youth,
With the joH^num! of forty and five ;
In short to declare tho plain truth,
There is no b^ttur fuJhuv alive!
At this time, he cultivated a particular intimacy with the Hon. Andrew Era-
Id nc, a younger brother of the mi si cat Earl of Kelly, and who mij*ht be said to
possess wit by inheritance, his father bein^ remarkable for this property! (though
not for ^ood sense,) while bis mother wns the daughter of Eh- Pitcaime. Ers-
kino and Bos well were, in frivolity, Arcade*? ambo ; or rather there seemed to be
a competition betwixt them, uhich should exhibit the greater share of tint
quality, A correspondence, in win eh this contest seems to be carried on, was
published in 1703, and, as there was no attempt to conceal names, the two let-
ter-writers must have been re yarded , in that dull and decorous a^e t as little bet-
ter than fools - — fools for writing in such a strain at all, but doubly fools for
laying- their folly in such an un perishable shape before the world
At the end of the year, 1763, Boswcll, still retaining his wish to enter the
;j '\ir.li. repaired once more to London, to end car our to obtain a commission.
For this purpose he carried recommendations to ChEirlei Duke of Queensberry —
the amiable patron of Gay — who, he believed, was able to obtain for him what
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
280 JAMES BOSWELL.
he wished. Owing, however, ( as is understood,) to the backwardness of Lord
Auchinleck to enforce his claims, his patrons put him off from time to time, till
he was again obliged to return to Scotland. At length, in the spring of 1763,
a compromise was made between the father and his son, the latter agreeing to
relinquish his favourite project, and resume the study of the civil law for one
winter at Utrecht, with the view of ultimately entering the legal profession, on
the condition that, after the completion of his studies, he should be permitted to
make what was then called " the grand tour."
Boswell set out for this purpose early in 1763 ; and, according to the recol-
lection of an ancient inhabitant of Glasgow, his appearance, in riding through
that city, on his way from Auchinleck, was as follows : — " A cocked hat, a brown
wig, brown coat, made in the court fashion, red vest, corduroy small clothes, and
long military-looking boots. He was on horseback, with his servant at a most
aristocratic distance behind, and presented a fine specimen of the Scottish coun-
try gentleman of that day." — Edin. Lit. Jour, ii, 327.
In Boswell's previous visits to London, he had never had the good fortune to
make the acquaintance of Dr Samuel Johnson. He had now that pleasure. On
the 16 th of May, as he himself takes care to inform us, while sitting in the back-
shop of Thomas Davies, the bookseller, No. 6, Russell-street, Govent Garden,
Johnson came in, and Boswell was introduced, by Davies, as a young gentleman
M from Scotland." Owing to the antipathy of the lexicographer to that country,
his conversation with Boswell was not at first of so cordial a description as at all
to predicate the remarkable friendship they afterwards formed. Boswell, how-
ever, by the vivacity of his conversation, soon beguiled the doctor of his preju-
dices ; and their intimacy was confirmed by a visit which he soon after paid to
Johnson at his apartments in the Temple. During the few months which Bos-
well spent in town before setting out for Utrecht, he applied himself assidu-
ously to cultivate this friendship, taking apartments in the Temple in order that
he might be the oftener in the company of the great man. Even at this early
period, he began that practice of noting down the conversation of Johnson, which
eventually enabled him to compose such a splendid monument to their common
memory*
He set out for Utrecht* In August 1763, and, after studying for the winter
under the celebrated civilian Trotz, proceeded, according to the compact with
his father, upon the tour of Europe. In company with the Earl Marischal,
whose acquaintance he had formed, he travelled through Switzerland and Ger-
many, visiting Voltaire at Ferney, and Rousseau in the wilds of Neufchatel ;
men whom his regard for the principles of religion might have taught him to
avoid, if his itch for the acquaintance of noted characters— one of the most
remarkable features of his character — had not forced him into their presence. He
afterwards crossed the Alps, and spent some time in visiting the principal cities
in Italy. Here he formed an acquaintance with Lord Mountstuart, the eldest
son of the Earl of Bute ; to whom he afterwards dedicated his law thesis oo
being admitted to the bar.
At this time, the inhabitants of the small island of Corsica were engaged in
their famous struggle for liberty, against the Genoese, and Pasquale de Paoli,
their heroic leader, was, for the time, one of the most noted men in Europe.
Boswell, struck by an irrepressible curiosity regarding this person, sailed to Cor-
sica, in autumn 1765, and introduced himself to Paoli at his palace, by means
of a letter from Rousseau. He was received with much distinction and kindness,
and noted down a good deal of the very striking conversation of the Corsicsn
chie£ After a residence of some weeks in the island, during which he made
himself acquainted with all its natural and moral features, he returned through
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BOSWBLL.
281
France, and arrive*! in London, February 17Gb\ his journey being hastened by
intelligence of the death of his mother. Dr Johnson received him, a* he passed
through London, with renewed kindness and friendship.
Bos well now returned to Scotland , and* agreeably to the treaty formed with
Lord Audi in leek, entered £ July 2H t I 7 Go" ) as a member of the faulty of advo-
cates. His temper, however, was still too volatile for the studious iKirsnit of
the law, and he did not make that progress in his profession, which might have
been expected from thu numerous advantages with which he commenced. The
Douglas cause was at this tinie pending, and Bos well, who was a warm part mil
of the young claimant* published (November 1767) a ptmphlet, entitled, *' The
Essence of the Douglas Cause,** in answer to one, entitled *' Considerations on
the Douglas Cause/ 7 in which a strenuous effort had been made to prove the
claimant an impostor- It is said that Mr Bos well's exertions on this occasion
were of material service in excitm* a popular prepossession in favour of the
doubtful heir. This, however, was the most remarkable appearance made by Mr
1 Jos well, as a lawyer, if it can be called so.
His Corsican tour> and the friendship of Panli, had made a deep impression
on Bus well's mind, He conceived that he had seen and made himself acquainted
with what had been seen and known by few ; and he was perpetually talking of
the islanders and their chief. This mania, which was rather, perhaps, to be at-
tributed to his vain desire of showing himself oil" in connection with a subject of
popular taik T than any appreciation of the noble character of the Corsican
sirumylt!, at length obtained htm the nick-name of Paoii t or Paoli BoxtwlL
Resolving that the world at large should parti ci pate in what he knew of Corsica,
he published, in the spring of 17{>3, his account of that island, winch was
printed in 3vo by the celebrated brothers, Foul is, at Glasgow, and was well re-
ceived- The sketches of the island and its inhabitants, are lively and amusing;
and his memoir of i J auli, which follows the account of the island, is a spirited
narrative of patriotic deeds and sufferings. The work was translated into the Ger-
man, Dutch t French* and Italian languages, and every where infected its readers
with its own enthusiastic feeling in behalf of the oppressed islanders, Dr John-
son thus expressed himself regarding it; — *' Your journal is curious and delight-
ful; 1 know not whether 1 could name any narrative by which curiosity is
better excited or belter gratified." On the other hand, Johnson joined the
rest of ili*.- world in thinking that the author indulged too much personally in
his enthusiasm upon the subject, and advised him, in a letter, dated March 23,
1768, to "empty his head of Corsica." Boswell was so vain of his book, as to
pay a visit to London, in the spring court vacation, chiefly for the purpose of
seeking Dr Johnson's approbation more at large.
In the following winter, a patent was obtained, for the first time, by Ross,
the manager of the Edinburgh theatre ; but, nevertheless, a violent opposition
was still maintained against this public amusement by the more rigid portion of
the citizens. Ross, being anxious to appease his enemies, solicited Boswell to
write a prologue for the opening of the house, which request was readily com-
plied with. The verses were, as Lord Mansfield characterised them, witty and
conciliating; and their effect, being aided by friends properly placed in differ-
ent parts of the house, was instantaneous and most triumphant ; the tide of op-
position was turned, the loudest plaudits were given, and Ross at once entered
upon a very prosperous career.
In 1769, Boswell paid a visit to Ireland, where he spent six or seven weeks,
chiefly at Dublin, and enjoyed the society of Lord Charlemont, Dr Leland, Mr
Flood, Dr Macbride, and other eminent persons of that kingdom, not forgetting
the celebrated George Falconer, the friend of Swift and Chesterfield* Viscount,*
i. 2 n
Digitized by
Google
282 JAMES BOSWELL.
afterwards Marquis Townshend, was then Lord Lieutenant, and the congeniality
of their dispositions united them in the closest friendship. He enjoyed a great
advantage hi tin? union of one of his female cousins to Mr Sibthorpe, of the
county of Down, a gentleman of hi^h in^uence, who was the means of introduc-
ing him into much good society. Another female cousin, Miss Margaret Mont-
gomery, daughter of Mr Montgomery of Lainshaw, accompanied him on the
expedition ; and not only added to his satisfaction by her own delightful company,
but caused him to bo received with much kindness by her numerous and respecta-
ble relations. '11*1 » jaunt was the means of converting Boswell from a resolu-
tion, which he appears to have formed, to live a single life. He experienced so
ruuch pleasure from the conversation of Miss Montgomery, that he was tempted
to seek her society for life in a matrimonial engagement. He had resolved, he said,
never to marry — had always protested, at least, that a large fortune would be in-
dispensable. He was now, however, impressed with so high an opinion of her
particular niftril, that he would wave that consideration altogether provided she
would wave his fuulu also, and accept him for better for worse. Miss Montgomery,
who waft really an eligible match, bein£ related to the noble family of Eglin-
toune, while her father laid claim to the dormant peerage of Lyle, acceded to
his proposal with corresponding frankness; and it was determined that they
should ho married at tlte end of the year, after he should have paid one parting
visit to London.
Before this visit was paid, Mr Boswell was gratified in the highest degree, by
the arrival of General i'aoli, who, having been forced to abandon his native
island, in consequence of the French invasion, had sought that refuge on the
allures of Britain, uhich has never yet been refused to the unfortunate of any
country. In autumn, I7t3fl, (ieoeral Faoli visited Scotland and Boswell; an
account of his prioress through the country, with Boswell in his train, is given
in the Scots Magazine of the time. Both on this occasion, and on his
subsequent visit to London, Dos well attended the exiled patriot with an ob-
wquious fidelity, arising no doubt as much from his desire of appearing in die
company of a noted character, as from gratitude for former favours of a similar
kind Among other persons to whom he introduced his Corsican friend, was Dr
Johnson ; an entirety opposite being, in destiny and character, but who, never-
theless, wjis at some pains to converse with the unfortunate stranger — Boswell
acting as interpreter. It woo hi be curious to know in what light Paoli, who
it as a high-minded man, beheld his eccentric cicerone.
During the time of his visit in London, September, 1769, the jubilee took
place at Stratford, to celebrate the birth of Shakspeare. As nearly all the lite-
rary, and many of the fashionable persons of the day were collected at this
solemnity, Boswell entered into it with a great deal of spirit, and played, it is
said, many fantastic trick*, more suited to a carnival scene on the continent,
than to a sober festival in England, To pursue a contemporary account, "One of
the most remarkable masks upon this occasion was James Boswell, Esq. in the
dress of an armed Corsican rhief. He entered the amphitheatre about 12
n*cLock. He wore a short, dark- coloured coat of coarse cloth, scarlet waist-
* -Hjii a i I breeches, ami black spatterdashes ; his cap or bonnet was of black
cloth j on the front of it was embroidered in gold letters, Viva la Liberia ; and
on one aide of it was a handsome blue feather and cockade, so that it had an
el e Gfaut as well as a warlike appearance. On the breast of his coat was sewed
a Moor's head, the crest of Corsica, surrounded with brandies of laurel. He
had also a cartridge -pouch, into which was stuck a stiletto, and on his left side
a pistol was hung upon the he it of hie cartridge-pouch. He had a fusee slung
across bis shoulder, wore no pvivacr in his hair ! but had it plaited at full
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BOSWELL. 283
length, with a knot of blue ribbons at the end of it He had, by way of staff,
a very curious vine all of one piece, with a bird finely carved upon it, emblema-
tical of the sweet bard of Avon. He wore no mask ; saying, that it was not pro-
per for a gallant Corsican. So soon as he came into the room, he drew univer-
sal attention. The novelty of the Corsican dress, its becoming appearance, and
the character of that brave nation, concurred to distinguish the armed Corsican
chieC He was first accosted by Mrs Garrick, with whom he had a good deal of
conversation. Mr Boswell danced both a minuet and a country dance with a
very pretty Irish lady, Mrs Sheldon, wife to captain Sheldon of the 38th regi-
ment of foot, who was dressed in a genteel domino, and before she danced, threw
orifher mask." London Magazine, September, 1769, where there is a portrait
of the modern Xenophon in this strange guta. 1
On the 25th of November, he was married, at Lainshaw, in Ayrshire, to Miss
Montgomery, 1 and what is rather a remarkable circumstance, his father was mar-
ried on the same day, at Edinburgh, to a second wife. With admirable sense,
aHection, and generosity of heart, the wife of James Boswell possessed no com-
mon share of wit and pleasantry. One of her bon mots is recorded by her hus-
band. Thinking that Johnson had too much influence over him, she said, with
some warmth, " 1 have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before saw a
man led by a bear." Once, when Boswell was mounted upon a horse which he
had brought pretty low by riding the country for an election, and was boasting
that he was a horse of blood, '* 1 hope so," said she, drily, " for I am sure he has
no fleehs* Her good-humoured husband kept a collection of her good tilings, un-
der the title of Uxoriana. Perhaps her best property was her discretion as a
housewife and a mother ; a quality much needed on her side of the house, since
it was so deficient on that of her husband. In a letter from Auchinleck, 23d
August, 1773, Dr Johnson thus speaks of her: "Mrs Boswell has the mien and
manner of a gentlewoman, and such a person and manner as could not in any
place be either admired or condemned. She is in a proper degree inferior to
1 Mr Croker has mentioned, in his edition of the life of Johnson, that on this occasion he
had the words " Corsica Boswell" in a scroll of gilt letters round his hat But perhaps the
above account somewhat invalidates the statement Boswell, however, is known to have
been ambitious of some such preuomen as Corsica, from an idea he entertained, that every
man, aiming at distinction, should be known by a soubriquet derived from the thing or place
by which he had gained celebrity. He seems to have adopted this fancy from the Roman
fashion, of which Scifrio African** is an instance. Thus, he encouraged a proposal for call-
ing Johnson by the epithet Dictionary Johnson.
* It has been already mentioned, that Boswell's courtship took place, or at least com-
menced in Ireland. I cannot help thinking that the following composition, published in
his name by his son, must have had a reference to this transaction. It is stated by Sir
Alexander to have been written to an Irish air: —
O Larghan Clanbrassil, how sweet is thy sound !
To my tender remembrance as Love's sacred ground ;
For there Marg'ret Caroline first charm'd my sight,
And fill'd my young heart with a fluttering delight
When I thought her my own, ah ! too short seem'd the day
For a jaunt to Downpatrick, or a trip on the sea;
To express what I felt then, all language were vain,
'Twas in truth what the poets have studied to feign.
But, too late, I found even she could deceive,
And nothing was left but to sigh, weep, and rave ;
Distracted, I flew from my dear native shore,
Resolved to see Larghan Clanbrassil no more.
Yet still in some moments enchanted I find
A ray of her fondness beams soft on my mind ;
While thus in blessM fancy my angel 1 see,
All the world is a Larghan Clanbrassil to mew
Digitized by
Google
284 JAMBS BOSWELL.
her husband ; she cannot rival him, nor can he ever be ashamed of her." She
died in June, 1789, leaving two sons, Alexander and James, and three daugh-
ters, Veronica, Euphemia, and Elizabeth.
For two or three years after his marriage, Boswell appears to have lived a
quiet professional life at Edinburgh, paying only short occasional visits to Lon-
don. In autumn, 1773, Dr Johnson gratified him by coming to Edinburgh, and
proceeding in his company on a tour through the north of Scotland and the
Western Islands. On this occasion, Boswell kept a journal, as usual, of every
remarkable part of Dr Johnson's conversation. The journey being made rather
late in the season, the two travellers encountered some hardships, and a few
dangers ; but they were highly pleased with what they saw, and the reception
they every where met with; Boswell, for his own part, declaring that he would
not have missed the acquisition of so many new and delightful ideas as he had
gained by this means, for five hundred pounds. Dr Johnson published an ac-
count of their trip, and the observations he made during its progress, under the
title of a "Journey to the Western Islands ;" and Boswell, after the death of his
friend, (1785), gave to the world the journal he had kept, as a " Tour to the
Hebrides," 1 volume 8vo. The latter is perhaps one of the most entertaining
works in the language, though only rendered so, we must acknowledge, at the
expense of the authors dignity. It ran through three editions during the first
twelvemonth, and has since been occasionally reprinted.
For many years after the journey to the Hebrides, Boswell only enjoyed such
snatches of Johnson's company and conversation, as he could obtain by occa-
sional visits to London, during the vacations of the Court of Session, Of these
interviews, however, he has preserved such ample and interesting records, as
must make us regret that he did not live entirely in London. It appears that,
during the whole period of his acquaintance with Johnson, he paid only a dozen
visits to London, and spent with him only a hundred and eighty days in all;
which, added to the time which they spent in their northern journey between
August 18th and November 23d, 1773, makes the whole period during which
the biographer enjoyed any intercourse with his subject, only two hundred and
seventy-six days, or one hundredth part of Johnson's life.
The strangely vain and eccentric conduct of Boswell had, long ere this period,
rendered him almost as notable a character as any of those whom he was so
anxious to see. His social and good-humoured character gained him universal
friendship; but this friendship was never attended with perfect respect Men of
inferior qualifications despised the want of natural dignity, which made him go
about in attendance upon every great man, and from no higher object in life
than that of being the commemorator of their conversations. It is lamentable to
state that, among those who despised him, was his own father ; and even other
relations, from whom respect might have been more imperatively required, were
fretted by his odd habits. " Old Lord Auchinleck," says Sir Walter Scott,
" was an able lawyer, a good scholar, after the manner of Scotland, and highly
ralued his own advantages as a man of good estate and ancient family, and,
moreover, he was a strict presbyterian and whig of the old Scottish cast" To
this character, his son presented a perfect contrast — a light-headed lawyer, an
aristocrat only in theory, an episcopalian, and a tory. But it was chiefly with
the unsettled and undignified conduct of his son, that the old gentleman found
fault " There's nae hope for Jamie, man," he said to a friend about the time
of the journey to the Hebrides ; " Jamie's gane clean gyte : What do ye think,
man? he's aff wi f the land-louping scoundrel of a Corsican ; and whase tail do
ye think he has pinned himself to now, man ?" Here the old judge summoned
up a sneer of most sovereign contempt " A dominie, man, (meaning Johnson)
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BOSWELL. 285
an auld dominie, that keepit a schule, and ca'd it an academy!" By the death
of Lord Auchinleck, in 1782, Boswell was at length freed from what he had
always felt to be a most painful restraint, and at the same time became
possessed of his paternal estate.
Boswell's mode of life, his social indulgences, and his frequent desertion of
business for the sake of London literary society, tended greatly to embarrass his
circumstances ; and he was induced to try if they could be repaired by exer-
tions in the world of politics. In 1784, when the people were in a state ol
most alarming excitement in consequence of Mr Fox's India Bill, and the eleva-
tion of Mr Pitt, he wrote a pamphlet, entitled, " A Letter to the People of Scot-
land, on the Present State of the Nation." Of this work Dr Johnson has thus
pronounced his approbation : — " I am very much of your opinion, and, like
you, feel great indignation at the style in which the King is every day treated.
Your paper contains very considerable knowledge of history and of the constituti on,
very properly produced and applied." The author endeavoured, by means of this
pamphlet, to obtain the favourable notice of Mr Pitt ; but we are informed that,
though the youthful minister honoured the work with his approbation, both on
this occasion, and on several others, his efforts to procure an introduction to
political life were attended with a mortifying want of success. He was, never-
theless, induced to appear once more as a pamphleteer in 1785, when he pub-
lished a second " Letter to the People of Scotland,*' though upon an humbler
theme, namely, " on the alarming attempt to infringe the articles of Union, and
introducing a most pernicious innovation, by diminishing the numbers of the
Lords of Session." This proposal had been brought forward in the House of
Commons ; the salaries of the judges were to be raised, and, that the expense
might not fall upon the country, their number was to be reduced to ten.
Boswell (to use a modern phrase) immediately commenced a vehement agitation
in Scotland, to oppose the bill ; and among other measures which he took for
exciting public attention, published this letter. His chief argument was, that
the number of the judges was established immutably by the act of union ; an act
which entered into the very constitution of parliament itself, and how then could
parliament touch it ? He also showed that the number of fifteen, which Buchanan
had pronounced too small to form a free or liberal institution, was little enough
to avoid the character of a tyrannical junto. He further argued the case in the
following absurd, but characteristic terms : — " Is a court of ten the same with a
court of fifteen ? Is a two-legged animal the same with a four-legged animal ?
I know nobody who will gravely defend that proposition, except one grotesque
philosopher, whom ludicrous fable represents as going about avowing his hunger,
and wagging his tail, fain to become cannibal, and eat his deceased brethren."
The agitation prevailed, and the court remained as it had been, for another
generation.
Boswell, whose practice at the Scottish bar was never very great, had long
wished to remove to the English, in order that he might live entirely in London.
His father's reluctance, however, had hitherto prevented him, Now that the old
gentleman was dead, he found it possible to follow his inclination, and accord-
ingly he began, from time to time, to keep his terms at the Inner Temple. His
resolution was thus sanctioned by a letter to him from Dr Johnson, which exhibits
at once a cautious and encouraging view of the mode of life he proposed to
enter upon : —
" I remember, and entreat you to remember, that virtus est vitium fuaere ;
the first approach to riches is security from poverty. The condition upon which
you have my consent to settle in London, is that your expense never exceeds
your annual income. Fixing this basis of security, you cannot be hurt, and
Digitized by
Google
286 JAMES BOSWELL.
you may be very much advanced. The Ion of your Scottish business, which is
all you can lose, is not to be reckoned any equivalent to the hopes and possi-
bilities that open here upon you. If you succeed, the question of prudence is at an
end ; any body will think that done right which ends happily ; and though your
expectations, of which I would not advise you to talk too much, should not be
totally answered, you can hardly fail to get friends who will do for you all that
your present situation allows you to hope ; and if, after a few years, you should
return to Scotland, you will return with a mind supplied by various conversations
and many opportunities of inquiry, with much knowledge and materials for
reflection and instruction."
At Hilary Term, 1786, he was called to the English bar, and in the ensuing
winter removed his family to London. His first professional effort is said to have
been of a somewhat ominous character. A few of the idlers of Westminster
Hall, conspiring to quiz poor Bozzy, as he was familiarly called, made up an
imaginary case, full of all kinds of absurdities, which they caused to be presented
to him for his opinion. He, taking all for real, returned a boaa-fide note of
judgment, which, while it almost killed his friends with laughter, covered him-
self with ineffaceable ridicule.
It is to be regretted that this decisive step in life was not adopted by Boswell
at an earlier period, as thereby he might have rendered his life of Johnson still
more valuable than it is. Johnson having died upwards of a year before his
removal, it was a step of little importance in a literary point of view ; nor did
it turn out much better in respect of professional profit
So early as 1781, when Mr Burke was in power, that great man had endea-
voured to procure an extension of the government patronage towards BoswelL
" We must do something for you," he said, " for our own sakes," and recom-
mended him to General Conway for a vacant place, by a letter, in which his
character was drawn in glowing colours. The place was not obtained ; but
Boswell declared that he valued the letter more. He was now enabled, by the
interest of Lord Lowther, to obtain the situation of Recorder of Carlisle; a
circumstance which produced the following
WORDS TO BE SET FOB A RECORDER.
Boswell once flamed with patriot zeai.
His bow was never bent ;
Now he no public wrongs can feel
Till Lowther nods assent
To seize the throne while faction tries
And would the Prince command,
The Tory Boswell coolly cries,
My King's in Westmoreland,
The latter verse is an allusion to the famous Regency question ; while, in the
former, Boswell is reminded of his zealous exertions in behalf of monarchy in
the pamphlet on the India Bill. It happening soon after that Dr John Douglas,
a fellow-countryman of Boswell's, was made Bishop of Carlisle, a new and hap-
pier epigram appeared :—
Of old, ere wise concord united this isle,
Our neighbours of Scotland were foes at Carlisle;
But now what a change have we here on the Border,
When Douglas is Bishop and Boswell Recorder !
Finding Ais recordership, at so great a distance from London, attended with
many inconveniences, Boswell, after holding it for about two years, resigned it
It was well known at this time that he was very anxious to get into parliament ;
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BOSAVELL. 287
and many wondered that so sound a tnry should Tint have obtained a soil at the
bands of some great parliamentary proprietor. Perhaps this wonder may bo
explained by a passnge in his last letter to the People of Scotland, tC Though
ambitious, 111 he says, u I am unoornipted ; and I envy not high situations whirl)
are attained by the want of public virtue in men born without it, or by the
prostitution of public virtue in men born with it. Though power, and wealth,
and niigni licence, may at first dazzle, and are, I think, nio&t desirable, no wise
man will, upon sober reflection, envy a situation which ho feels he could not en-
joy. My friend — my * Maecenas atavis edite regibuV — Lord Mountstuart,
flittered me once very highly without intending it * I would do any thing for
you, 1 be said, ' but bring you into parliament, for I could not be sure hut you
would oppose me in something the very next day/ His lordship judged welL
Though 1 should consider, with much attention, the opinion of such a friend
before taking my resolution, most certainly I should oppose him t:i any measure
which I was satisfied ought to be opposed- I cannot exbt with pleasure, if 1
have not an honest independence of mind and of conduct ; for T though no man
loves good eating and drinking batter than I do t I prefer the broiled blade-lmne
of mutton and humble port of ' downright Ship pen, 1 to all the luxury of all the
statesmen who play the political game all through."
He oflered himself, however, as a candidate for Ayrshire, at the general elec-
tion of 17 DO; but was defeated by the interest of the minister, which was
exerted for a more pliant partizan. On this and all other proper ©fusions, he
made no scruple to avow himself a Tory and a royalist ; saying, however, in
the words of his pamphlet just quoted, tl I can drink, I can laugh, 1 can con-
verse, in perfect good humour, with Whigs, with Republicans, with Dissenters,
with Moravians, with Jews — they can do me no harm— my mind is made up —
my principles are fixed — hut 1 would vote with Tories, and pray with a Dean
and Chapter,"
If his success at the bar and in the political world was not very splendid, he
consoled himself, so far as his own fancy was to he consoled, by the grateful
task of preparing for the press his magnum opus — the Life of Dr Johnson.
This work appeared in 1701, in two volumes, quarto, and was received with an
avidity suitable to its entertaining and valuable character Hesides a most
minute narrative of the literary and domestic life of Joliiigiin, it contained notes
of si J the remnrkable expressions which the sage had ever uttered in Mr Dos well's
presence, besides some similar records from other hands, and an immense store
of original letters. As decidedly the most faithful biographical portraiture in
existence, and referring to one of the most illustrious names in literature, it is
unquestionably the first book of its class J and not only so, but there is no other
biographical work at all approaching to it in merit- While this is the praiae
deserved by the work, it happens, rather uncommonly, that no similar degree
of approbation can bo extended to the writer. Though a gnat work, it is only
so by accident, or rather through the persevering assiduity of the author in a
course which no man fit to produce a designedly great work could have submitted
to- It is only great, by a multiplication and agglomeration of little efforts.
The preparation of a second edition of the life of \h Johnson, was the last literary
performance of Hoswell, who died, jtfay 19, 17H5, at his house in Great Poland
Street, London, in the 55th year of his age ; having been previously ill for five
weeks of a disorder which had commenced as an intermitting fever- He was
buried at the family scat of Auchinleck.
The character of Hoswell is so amply shadowed forth by the foregoing account
of his life, that little more need be said about it. r lhat he wns a good-natured
social man, possessed of considerable powers of imagination and humour, and
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
288 ALEXANDER and JAMES BOSWELL.
well acquainted with literature and the world of common life, is universally
acknowledged. He has been, at the same time, subjected to just ridicule for uis
total want of that natural dignity by which men of the world secure and main-
tain the respect of their fellow-creatures in the daily business of life. He wanted
this to such a degree, that even those relations whose respect was most necessary,
according to the laws of nature, could scarcely extend it ; and from the same
cause, his intellectual exertions, instead of shedding a lustre upon his name, have
proved rather a kind of blot in his pedigree. His unmanly obsequiousness to
great men— even though some of these were great only by the respect due to
talent— his simpleton drollery — his degrading employment as a chronicler of
private conversations — his mean tastes, among which was the disgusting one of a
fondness for seeing executions— and the half folly, half vanity, with which he
could tell the most delicate things, personal to himself and his family, in print —
1 ave altogether conspired to give him rather notoriety than true fame, and,
though perhaps leaving him affection, deprive him entirely of respect It was
a remarkable point in the character of such a man, that, with powers of enter-
tainment almost equal to Shakspeare's description of Yorick, he was subject to
grievous fits of melancholy in private. One of his works, not noticed in the
preceding narrative, was a series of papers under the title of " The Hypochon-
driac," which appeared in the London Magazine for 1782, and were intended
to embody the varied feelings of a man subject to that distemper.
Perhaps, it is only justice to Boswell, after expressing the severe character
which the world has generally pronounced upon him, 1 to give his own descrip-
tion and estimate of himself, from his Tour to the Hebrides. " Think of a
gentleman of ancient blood, the pride of which was his predominant passion.
He was then in his 33d year, and had been about four years happily married :
his inclination was to be a soldier; but his father, a respectable judge, had
pressed him into the profession of the law. He had travelled a good deal, and
seen many varieties of human life. He had thought more than any body sup-
posed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge. He
had all Dr Johnson's principles, with some degree of relaxation. He had rather
too little than too much prudence ; and, his imagination being lively, he often
said things, of which the effect was very different from the intention. He
resembled sometimes ' the best-natured man with the worst-natured muse.' He
cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr Johnson,
whose friendly partiality to the companion of his tour, represents him as one
* whose acuteness would help any inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation,
and civility of manners, are sufficient to counteract the inconveniencies of travel,
in countries less hospitable than we have passed.' "
BOSWELL, Alexander and Jambs, sons of the preceding. It has been remarked,
as creditable to the memory of James VL. that he educated two sons, who were
both, in point of personal and intellectual character, much above the standard
of ordinary men. The same remark will apply to the biographer of Johnson,
who, whatever may be thought of his own character, reared two sons who stood
forth afterwards as a credit to his parental care. A wish to educate his children
in the best manner, was one of the ruling passions of this extraordinary lUlera-
1 Sir William Forbes, in his Life of Beattie, thus speaks of Boswell :— " His warmth of
heart towards his friends was very great ; and I have known few men who possessed a
stronger sense of piety, or more fervent devotion, (tinctured, no doubt, with a little share of
superstition, which had probably been in some degree fostered by his habits of intimacy with
Dr Johnson) perhaps not always sufficient to regulate his imagination or direct his conduct,
yet still genuine, and founded both in his understanding and his heart For Mr Boswell 1
entertained a sincere regard, which he returned by the strongest proof in his power to con*
fer, by leaving me the guardiau of his children.*'
Digitized by
Google
ALEXANDER BOSWELL. 289
iettr in his latter years. He placet both his sons at Westminster school, and
afterwards in the university of Oxford, at an expense which appears to have been
not altogether justified by his own circumstances.
Alexander Bos well, who was born, October 9, 1775, succeeded his father in
the possession of the family estate. He was distinguished as a spirited and
amiable country gentleman, and also as a literary antiquary of no inconsiderable
erudition. Perhaps his taste, in the latter capacity, was greatly fostered by the
possession of an excellent collection of old, manuscripts and books, which was
gathered together by his ancestors, and has acquired the well-known title of the
" AucmmacK Library." From the stores of this collection, in 1804, Sir
Walter Scott published the romance of " Sir Tristram," which is judged by its
learned editor to be the earliest specimen of poetry by a Scottish writer now in
existence. Besides this invaluable present to the literary world, the Auchinleck
Library furnished, in 1812, the black letter original o£ a disputation held be-
tween John Knox and Quentin Kennedy at Mayboiein 15(32, which was printed
at the time by Knox himself, but had latterly become so scarce, that hardly
another copy, besides that in the Auchinleck Library, was known to exist Mr
Boswell was at the expense of printing a fac-simile edition of this curiosity,
which was accepted by the learned, as a very valuable contribution to our stock
of historical literature.
The taste of Alexander Boswell was of a much manlier and more sterling
character than that of his father ; and instead of being alternately the active
and passive cause of amusement to his friends, he shone exclusively in the former
capacity. He possessed, indeed, a great fund of volatile talent, and, in parti-
cular, a most pungent vein of satire, which, while it occasionally inspired fear
and dislike in those who were liable to become its objects, produced no admira-
tion which was not also accompanied by respect At an early period of his life,
some ol his poetical jeux d'esprit occasionally made a slight turmoil in that
circle of Scottish society in which he moved. He sometimes also exercised
his pen in that kind of familiar vernacular poetry which Burns again brought
into fashion; and in the department of song-writing he certainly met with
considerable success. A small volume, entitled, " Songs chiefly in the Scottish
Dialect," was published by him, anonymously, in 1803, with the motto,
" Nulla venenato litera mixta joco," a motto which it would have been well for
him if he had never forgot In a brief note on the second folio of this little
work, he mentioned that he was induced to lay these trivial compositions in an
authentic shape before the public, because corrupted copies had previously made
their appearance. The truth is, some of his songs had already acquired a wide
acceptation in the public, and were almost as familiar as those of Burns. 1 The
volume also contains some English compositions, which still retain a popularity —
such as " Taste Life's Glad Moments," which, he tells us, he translated at Leipsig, in
1795, from the German song, " Freu't euch des Libens." Mr Boswell also
appears, from various compositions in this little volume, to have had a turn for
writing popular Irish songs. One or two of his attempts in that style, are replete
with the grotesque character of the nation. 8
1 We may instance. a Auld Gudeman, ye're a Drucken Carle," u Jenny's Bawbee," and
* Jenny Dang the Weaver."
* It Is hardly worth while to sav more of a few fugitive lyrics; but yet we cannot help
pointing out a remarkably beautiful antithesis, in one styled * The Old Chieftain to his
Sons:"—
M The auld will speak, the young maun hear,
Be canty, but be gude and leal ;
Your ain ills aye hae heart to bear,
Amther*s aye hae heart to feel."
In another he thus ludicrously advert*, In a fictitious character, to the changes which modern
Digitized by
Google _
21M.I
ALEXANDER ROSWKLU
In 1810, Mr Bos wall published a small volume under the title, "Edinburgh,
or the Ancient Royn)ty s a Sketch of former Manners, by Simon Gray. 1 * It is
n kind of city enhnnn^ In utiii:h a lariiic'r, who know the town in a past age, is
auuru»ed tn converse regafdin* iu modern change*, with a city friend. It con-
tains some highly c^rion* memorials of tile simple manners which obtained in
Edinburgh, before the change described in the song just quoted- At a subse-
quent period, -Mr Unwell established a private printing-press at Audi in leek,
from which he issued various trifles in prose and Terse, some of which are
characterised by much humour. In 1816, appeared a poetical tale, somewhat
like Emrnys M Tarn o* Sha nter," entitled, " Skeldon 1 laughs, or the Sow is
Flitted!* 1 bein^ founded on a traditionary story regarding an Ayrshire feud of
the fifteenth century. 1 In IS31 P Mr Bos we 1 1 was honoured with, what hod been
tlie chief object of his ambi tion for many years, a baronetcy of tireat Britain, About
this period, politics ran very high in the country, and Sir Alexander, who had
inherited ail the Tory spirit of bis father, sided warmly with the ministry. In
miininT-, rather than lime, have produced upon the external and internal economy of too
ScoUisu capital ;—
I lech! what achaujro line wo now in this town!
i A* now am Urnw lods, ihtf lasses a' glancjn' ;
Foik maun be dizzy gauti aye in this roun 1 ,
For <ii,'il a hae't 'a done now but feastin 1 sod dancin*,
GowiVs no that scanty in ilk siller pock,
Whan jlkn bit Inddit? maun hue hh bit stniipa;
But 1 Icent the day when there was Tin a Jerk,
HuL trotted about upon hmimt sh auks- n nig ie.
Little was tiown then, and less eaed to waste,
Harely m muJIin for mice or for ratten* ;
The thrifty gudewife to the flwh-rour ket pa !■*•*!,
Jler i'4jui|>.-iuu ii'— just a eude nnir a" patten*.
Folk were a- r\nU* i hi iij mid frii mis were n< leal;
Though roaches were scant, wi 1 their catUe a 1 eautrJo 1 ;
flight aire we were tell 1 ! by the housemaid or chii:l>
''Sir, an ye please, here s ycr Um and a lantern- 1
The town may be clout ft and pieced till It meet*,
A 1 neebors be north and bes^uth without haltiu'
Brigs may he bigg it ower luins and ower streets,
liie Nor- Loch itscl 1 hoapM as heigh as I he l-iilton.
But whur is true friendship, and wliar will you *ee
A' that Is gude, honesty modest, and thrifty?
Tak gray hairs and wrinkles, and hirple iff me.
And think on the seventeen -bund red and fifty.
* Kennedy of BnrgenytetAfrwf a sow on the lands of his feudal enemy Crawford of Kerse*
and resolved that the latter gentle man, with all his vassals, should not be per mi tied to re more
or ■* ilit 11 the aiilmaL To defeat this bravado at the very Jifst, the adherents of Crawford
assembled in great force, and entered into active fijiht with the Kennedies, who, wim tueir
sow, were at length driven back with great (daughter, though net till the son of the laird of
Kerse, who had led lug father 1 * forces, was slain. The point of the poem lies in the dia-
liieue which passed hot ween the old lruid and a messenger who came to apprise him of the
■ ' U the sow flitllt? tell me, Joon |
is auld Kyle up am! Carriek down ?'
Mingled wi T sobs, fajfe broken tale
The youth began; Ah, Kerse, bewnil
This"luf Uesi day 1 — Your blyihe Ann, John,
Ah, waes my heart, lies on the loan —
And he could sins like only merle !
1 Is the sow flitted? 1 cried the carle;
4 Gie me my answer— short and plain, —
Is the sow flitted, yammeriu wean !'
* The sow (dell tnk her) T s ower the water —
And at their backs the Craw fords baiter —
The Carrkkcouts ore cowed and bitted V
1 My thumb for Jock ! tkk sow it rwTTip.* "
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BOSWELL. 291
the beginning of the year 182 J, a few gentlemen of similar prepossessions,
conceived it to be not only justifiable, but necessary, that the fervour of the
radical press, as it was called, should be met by a corresponding fervour on the
other side, so that the enemies of the government might be combated with their
own weapons. Hence arose a newspaper in Edinburgh styled the Beacon, to
which Sir Alexander Boswell contributed a few jeux d'etprit, aimed at the lead-
ing men on the other side, and alleged to have far exceeded the proper line of
political sarcasm. These being continued in a subsequent paper, which was pub-
lished at Glasgow, under the name of the Sentinel, at length were traced to
their author by James Stuart, Esq. younger of-Dunearn, who had been the object
of some of the rudest attacks, and repeatedly accused of cowardice. The
consequence of this discovery was a challenge from Mr Stuart to Sir Alexander,
and the hostile parties having met near Auchtertool in Fife, March 26, 1822,
the latter received a shot in the bottom of the neck, which terminated his exist-
ence next day. Mr Stuart was tried for this offence, by the High Court of Justi-
ciary, but most honourably acquitted. Sir Alexander left a widow and several
children.
BOSWELL, Jambs, the second son of the biographer of Johnson, was, as already
mentioned, educated at Westminster School. He was afterwards entered of
Brazen-nose College, Oxford, and there had the honour to be elected fellow upon
the Vinerian foundation. Mr Boswell possessed talents of a superior order,
sound classical scholarship, and a most extensive and intimate knowledge of our
early literature. In the investigation of every subject he pursued, his industry,
judgment, and discrimination, were equally remarkable; his memory was unusu-
ally tenacious and accurate ; and he was always as ready, as he was competent,
to communicate his stores of information for the benefit of others. Mr Malone
was influenced by these qualifications, added to the friendship which he entertain-
ed for Mr Boswell, to select him as his literary executor ; and to his care this
eminent commentator intrusted the publication of an enlarged and amended
edition of Shakspeare, which he had long been meditating. As Mr Malone's papers
were left in a state scarcely intelligible, it is believed that no man but one of
kindred genius like Mr Boswell, could have rendered them at all available.
This, however, Mr Boswell did in the most efficient manner ; farther enriching
the work with many excellent notes of his own, besides collating the text with
all the earlier editions. This work, indeed, which extends to twenty-one
volumes, 8vo, must be considered as not only the most elaborate edition of
Shakspeare, but perhaps the greatest edition of any work in the Eng-
lish language. In the first volume, Mr Boswell has stepped forward to de-
fend the literary reputation of Mr Malone against the severe attacks made by a
writer of distinguished eminence, upon many of his critical opinions and state-
ments ; a task of great delicacy, and which Mr Boswell performed in so spirited
and gentlemanly a manner, that his preface may be fairly quoted as a model of
controversial writing. In the same volume are inserted " Memoirs of Mr Malone,"
originally printed by Mr Boswell for private circulation ; and a valuable essay
on the metre and phraseology of Shakspeare, the materials for which were partly
collected by Mr Malone, but which was entirely indebted to Mr Boswell for
arrangement and completion.
Mr Boswell inherited from his father a keen relish of the society of the
metropolis, and accordingly he spent his life almost exclusively in the Middle
Temple. Few men were better fitted to appreciate and contribute to the plea-
sures of social intercourse ; his conversational powers, and the unfailing cheerful-
ness of his disposition, rendered him everywhere an acceptable guest ; but it
was the goodness of his heart, that warmth of friendship which knew no bound*
Digitized by
Google
*W AKCH1BAU) BOWER. ;.
when a call was made upon his services, which formed the sterling excellence, i I
and the brightest feature of Mr Boswell's cliaracter. This amiable man and ■ I
excellent scholar died, February 24, 1822, in the forty-third year of his age, 1 1
and was buried in the Temple Church, by a numerous train of sorrowing friends.
It is a melancholy circumstance, that his brother, Sir Alexander, had just
returned from performing the last offices to a beloved brother, when he himself
was summoned from existence in the manner above related.
BOWER, Archibald, a learned person, but of dubious fame, was born on the
17th of January, 1686, near Dundee. He was a younger son of a respectable
Catholic family, which, for several centuries, had possessed an estate in Forfar-
shire. In 1702, he was sent to the Scots College at Douay, where he studied
for the church. At the end of the year 1706, having completed his first year
of philosophy , he went to Rome, and there, December 9 , was admitted into the order
of Jesus. After his noviciate, he taught classical literature and philosophy, for
two years, at Fano, and subsequently he spent three years at Fermo. In 1717,
he was recalled to Rome, to study divinity in the Roman College. His last vows
were made at Arezzo, in 1722.
Bowers fame as a teacher was now, according to his own account, spread over
all the Italian states, and he had many invitations to reside in different places,
to none of which he acceded, till the College of Macerata chose him for their
professor. He was now arrived at the mature age of forty ; and it was not to
have been expected that any sudden change, either in his religious sentiments or in
his moral conduct; would take place after that period of life. Probably, however.
Bower had never before this time been exposed to any temptation. Being now
appointed confessor to the nunnery of St Catherine at Macerata, he is alleged to
have commenced a criminal intercourse with a nun of the noble family of Buon-
acorsi. Alarmed, it is said, for the consequences of bis imprudence, he deter-
mined upon flying from the dominions of the Pope ; a step which involved the
greatest danger, as he had previously become connected, in the capacity of coun-
sellor, with the Holy Inquisition, which invariably punished apostasy with death.
Bowers own account of his flight sets forth conscientious scruples on the score
of religion, as having alone urged him to take that step ; but it is hardly credible
that a man in his situation could expose his life to imminent danger from a sud-
den access of scrupulosity. The circumstances of his flight are given in the fol-
lowing terms by himself:
" To execute that design with some safety, I purposed to beg leave of the
Inquisitor to visit the virgin at Loretto, but thirteen miles distant, and to pass a
week there, but, in the meantime, to make the best of my way to the country of
the Grisons, the nearest country to Macerata out of the reach of the Inquisition,
Having, therefore, after many conflicts with myself, asked leave to visit the
neighbouring sanctuary, and obtained it, I set out on horseback the very next
morning, leaving, as I purposed to keep the horse, his full value with the owner.
I took the road to Loretto, but turned out of it at a small distance from Recenati,
after a most violent struggle with myself, the attempt appearing to me, at that
juncture, quite desperate and impracticable ; and the dreadful doom reserved for
me, should I miscarry, presenting itself to my mind in the strongest light But
the reflection that I had it in my power to avoid being taken alive, and a per-
suasion that a man in my situation might lawfully avoid it, when every other
means failed him, at the expense of his life, revived my staggering resolution ;
and all my fears ceasing at once, I steered my course to Calvi in the dukedom
of Urbino, and from thence through the Romagna into the Bolognese, keeping
the by-roads, and at a good distance from the cities of Fano, Pisaro, Rimini, Forli,
Faenza, and Tivola, through which the high road passed. Thus I advanced very
Digitized by
Google
ARCHIBALD BOWKR. 293
blowly, travelling, generally speaking, in rery bad roads, and often in places
w iit- re there was no rood at all, to avoid, not only the cities and towns, but even
ilio villages* In the meantime, I seldom had any other support than some coarse
provisions, and a very small quantity even of them, that the poor shepherds and
ViOod-eJeavers could spare me. My horse fared not bettor than myself; but, in
choosing my sleeping-place, I consulted his convenience as much as my own ;
naming the night where 1 found most shelter for myself, and most grass for htm.
In. Italy there are very few solitary farm-houses or cottages , the country people
there all living together in villages ; and I thought it for saforto lie where I could
bo any way sheltered, than to venture into any of them, 'Hun I spent seventeen
days before 1 got out of the ecclesiastical state ; and I very narrowly escaped
being Liken or murdered on the very borders of that state. It happened thug :
'* 1 had passed two whole days without any kind of subsistence whatever, meeting
nobody in the by-roads that would supply me with any, and fearing to come near
any house. As 1 was not far from the borders of the dominions of the Pope, I
thought I should be able to hold out tilt 1 got into the Modenese, where I be-
lieved 1 should bo in less danger than while I remained in the papal dominions ;
but finding myself, about noon of the third day, extremely weak and ready to
saint, 1 came into the high road that leads from Bologna to Florence, at a few
miles distance from the former city, and alighted at a post-house that stood quite
by itselC Having asked the woman of the house whether she had any victuals
ready, and being told that she had, I west to open the door ef tike only room in
the house, (that being a place where gentlemen only stop to change horses,) and
saw, to my great surprise, a placard pasted on it, with a most minute description
of my whole person, and the promise of a reward of 8 00 crowns, about £iQ0
English money, for delivering me up alive to the inquisition, being a fugitive
from the holy tribunal, and GOO crowns for my head- By the same placard, all
person,? were forbidden, on pain of the greater excommunication, to receive,
harbour, or entertain me, to conceal or to screen me, or to be any way aiding
or assisting to me in making my escape '11 vis greatly alarmed me, as the rea-
der may well imagine; hut 1 was still more afirighted when entering the room
1 saw two fellows drinking there, who, fixing their eyes upon mo as soon as 1
came, continued looking at me very steadfastly. I strove, by wiping my face, by
blowing my nose f by looking out at the window, to prevent their having' a full
view of mo* But one of them saying, ' The gentleman seems afraid to be seen, 1
1 put up my handkerchief and turning to the fellow, said boldly, * V\ hat do you
mean, you rascal ? Look at me, I am not afraid to be seen. 1 He said nothing,
but, looking again stedfastly at me, and nodding his head, went out, and his com-
panion immediately followed him. 1 ivntr-hed them, and seeing them with two
or throe more in cIosa conference, and no doubt considting whether they should
apprehend me or not, 1 walked that moment into ihe stable, mounted my horse
unobserved by them ; and, while they were deliberating in the orchard behind
the house, rode off at full speed, and in a few hours got into the Modeneae, where
1 refreshed, both with food and rest as I was there in no immediate danger, my
bone and myself. I was indeed surprised that those fellows did not pursue me ;
nor can 1 any other way account for it, but by supposing, what is not improba-
ble, that, as they were strangers as well as myself* and had all the appearance
ef banditti or ruffians flying out of the dominions of the pope, the woman of the
house did not care to trust them with her horses. 17
Bower now directed his course through the cantons of Switzerland, and as
some of these districts WMI Catholic, though not under the dominion of the
inquisition he had occasionally to resume the mode of travelling abo re described,
in order to avoid being taken. At length, May 1726, he reached the Scots
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
294 ARCHIBALD BUWEH.
College at Douay, uherc lit* threw himself upon ilic protection of the rector.
According to lib own narrative, which, houover, has been contradicted in many
points, bo thus proved, that, though he had tied from ihe horrors of the holy
tribunal, and hail begun to enter lain some doubts upon S4jver.il parts of the
Catholic doctrines, ho was not <J isposed to abandon entirely ihe profession of faith
in which he bad been educated. He even describes a correspondence which he
entered into with the superior of his order in France, who at length recommended
him lo make the best of his way to England, in order that lie might get fairly
beyond the reach of the inquisition, '1 his he did under such circumstances of
renewed danger, that ho would hate been detained at Calais, but for the kind-
ncs* of an English noble man* Lord Baltimore, who conveyed him over to Dover
in his own yacht. Ho arrived at London in July or August 1726.
His first friend of any eminence in England was Dr Aspinwall, who, like him-
•elf, find formerly belonged to the order of Jesus. J I is conversations with this
gentleman, and with the more celebrated Dr Clarke, and Berkeley bishop of Cloy ne,
produced, or appeared to produce, such a change in bis religious sentiments,
that he soon oiler abjured the Catholic faith. For six years, he continued a
protectant, but of no denomination. At length be joined Lbo communion of the
church of England, which he professed to consider ;i as free in her service as any
reformed church from the idolatrous practices and superstitions of popery, and
less inclined, than many others, to fanaticism and enthusiasm.^ By his friends
he was recommended to Lord Aylmer, who wanted a person to rssist him in
reading the classics. While thus employed, he conducted a review or magazine,
which was started in 1730, under the title " Historia Literaria," and was fin-
ished in eight volumes, in 1734. Being little acquainted with the English
tongue, he composed the early part of this work in Italian, and had it translated
by an English student ; but before the work was concluded, he had made him-
self sufficiently acquainted with English, to dispense with lis translator. After
its conclusion, he was engaged by the publishers of the Ancient Universal His-
tory, for which work he wrote during a space of nine years, contributing, in
particular, the article Roman History, It is said that the early part of this
production is drawn out to an undue length, considering that there were various
other abridgments of that portion of the history of Rome ; while the latter part,
referring to the Eastern empire, though comparatively novel and valuable, was,
from the large space already occupied, cut down into as many paragraphs as it
ought to have occupied pages. The second edition of the Universal History was
committed for revisal to Mr Bower's care, and it is said that, though he received
j£300 from the publishers, he performed his task, involving though it did a very
large commercial interest, in the most superficial and unsatisfactory manner.
His writings had been so productive before the year 1740, that he then possessed
£1 1 00 in South Sea annuities. It is alleged that he now wished to be restored
to the bosom of the church, in order that he might share in its bounty as a mis-
sionary. In order to conciliate its favour, and attest his sincerity, he is said to
have offered to it, through father Shirburn, then provincial of England, the whole
of his fortune on loan. The money was received on the conditions stipulated
by himself, and was afterwards augmented to £1350, for which, in August 1743,
a bond was given, allowing him an annuity equal to seven per cent upon the
principal He is said to have been so far successful in his object that, in 1744
or 1745, he was re-admitted into, or rather reconciled to the order of Jesus —
though it does not appear that he ever received the employment which he
expected. In 1747, having been tempted by a considerable offer to write a
history of the popes in a style agreeable to protestant feeling, he is alleged to
have commenced a correspondence with father Shirburn for the purpose of get-
Digitized by
Google
ARCHIBALD BOWER, 2U5
tin™ back hia money, teat, on breaking again with the church, the whole should
bo forfeited. He protended (hat he had engaged in .in illicit intercourse with a
lady, to whom the money in reality belonged , and that, hi order to disengage
himself from a connection which lay heavily upon his conscience, lie wished to
re fund the money, Accordingly, on the £flth of June, 1747, he received it
back. If we are to believe himself; he did not lend the money to Shirbum, hut to
Mr Hill, a Jesuit, who transacted money affairs in UU capacity as an attorney. He
retracted it, he said , in order to be able to marry. The letters shown as having been
written by him to father Shirburn, were, he saijl, forgeries prepared by catholics
in order to destroy hid popularity with the pro testa nts. But the literary world
hns long settled the question against Bower. The letters were published in
17 5G, by his countryman Dr John Douglas, afterwards highop of Salisbury, along
with a commentary proving their authenticity. The replies of Bower, though
ingenious, are by no means satisfactory, and it is obvious that the whole transac-
tion proves him to have been a man who little regarded principle, when he had
like prospect of improving his fortune.
The first vohune of bis History of the Popes, was published in 1 7 48 ; and be
was soon after, by the interest of Lord I jy it let on, appointed librarian to Queen
Caroline* It must be remarked that this irreproachable nobleman remained the
friend of Hower, while all the rest of the world turned their backs upon him ;
.mil it must be confessed, that such a fact is calculated to stagger the faith of many
oven in the acuteness of Bishop Douglas. On the -1th of August, 1719, when he
had just turned the grand climacteric, he married a niece of Bishop Nicholson ,
with a fortune of £ 1000, In 1751, he published his second volume, and, in
1753, his third, which brought down the history to the death of Pope Stephen.
This work, partly from the circumstances of the author, appears to have been
receive*! with great favour by the dissenters and more devout party of the church.
Bower is alleged by bis enemies to have kept up the interest of I he publication,
by stories of the danger in which be lay from the> malignity of the Catholics,
who, as he gave out, attempted on one occasion to carry him off" by water from
Greenwich. Lord LyUletctt, in April 1 7 54 1 appointed him clerk of the buck
warrants. It was in 175S, that his personal reputation received its first grand
shock from the exposure of Dr Douglas, who next year published a second tract,
as fully condemnatory of his literary character. This Litter production, entitled,
" Bower and Tillemont Compared," showed that a great part of his History of
the Popes was nothing more lb:in a translation of the French historian. He
endeavoured to repel the attack in three laboured pamphlets; hut Dr Douglas, in
a reply, continued his original statements by unquestionable documents. Before
the controversy ended, Dower had issued Ins fourth volume, and, in 1757, an
abridgment of what was published appeared at Amsterdam, The fifth volume ap-
peared in t Tii 1 1 during which year he also pub li&hcd " Authentic JMeuioira con-
cerning the Portuguese Inquisition, in a series of letters to a friend ,"" Bvo,
The History of the Popes nns finally completed in seven volumes; and on the
3rd of September, l7G(i, the author died at his house in Bond Street, in the
eighty-first year of his age, 1 He was buried in Mmy-le-bime church-yard,
whore there is a monument to him, bearing the following inscription :
'* A man exemplary for every social virtue. Justly esteemed by all who knew
him for his strict honesty and integrity. A faithful friend and a sincere Chris-
tian.
" False witnesses rose up against him, and laid to his charge things lhat he
1 A letier written at the request of his widow to notify his death to his nephew in Scotland
(whirn 1 have seen,) mentions that he bore a anal irfness of three weeks ■* in every way
fuiUibJe to the character of u good Chrl^tf&r "
Digitized by
Google
296 WALTER BOWER.— MARK BOYD.
knew not ; they imagined wickedness in their hearts and practised it : their
delight is in lies : they conspired together, and laid their net to destroy him
guiltless : the very abjects came together against him, they gaped upon him with
their mouths, they sharpened their tongues like a serpent, working deceitfully ;
they compassed him about with words of malice, and hated, and fought against
him without a cause.
" He endured their reproach with fortitude, suffering wrongfully."
" Unhappy ranity !" exclaims Samuel Ayscough, who preserves the inscrip-
tion, " thus endeavouring, as it were, to carry on the deception with God, which
he was convicted of at the bar of literary justice : how much better would it have
been to let his name sink in oblivion, than thus attempt to excite the pity of
those only who are unacquainted with the history of his life ; and, should it
raise a desire in any person to inquire, it must turn their pity into contempt."
In Bower, we contemplate a man of considerable merit in a literary point of
view, debased by the peculiar circumstances in which he entered the world. A
traitor to his own original profession of faith, he never could become a good sub-
ject to any other. His subsequent life was that of an adventurer and a hypo-
crite ; and such at length was the dilemma in which he involved himself by his
unworthy practices, that, for the purpose of extricating himself, he was reduc-
ed to the awful expedient of denying upon oath the genuineness of letters
which were proved upon incontestable evidence to be his. Even, however, from
the evil of such a life, much good may be extracted. The infamy in which his
declining years were spent, must inform even those to whom good is not good
alone for its own sake, that the straight paths of candour and honour are the only
ways to happiness, and that money or respect, momentarily enjoyed at the ex-
pense of either, can produce no permanent or effectual benefit
BOWER, Walter, an historical writer of the fifteenth century, was born at
Haddington, in 1385. At the age of eighteen, he assumed the religious habit;
and after finishing his philosophical and theological studies, visited Paris in order
to study the laws. Having returned to his native country, he was unanimously
elected Abbot of St Colm, in the year 1418. After the death of Fordoun, the
historian, (see that article,) he was requested, by Sir David Stewart of Rossyth,
to undertake the completion of the Scotichronicon, or Chronicles of Scotland,
which had been brought up by the above writer only to the 23d chapter of the
fifth book. In transcribing the part written by Fordoun, Bower inserted large
interpolations. He completed the work in sixteen books, which brought the
narrative to the death of James the First; and he is said to have been much
indebted for materials to the previous labours of Fordoun. Bower, like Fordoun,
wrote in a scholastic and barbarous Latin ; and their work, though it mutt be
considered as one of the great fountains of early Scottish history, is characterised
by few of the essential qualities of that kind of composition.
BOYD, Mark, an extraordinary genius, who assumed the additional name of
Alexander, from a desire of assimilating himself to the illustrious hero of Mace-
don, was a younger son of Robert Boyd of Pinkell in Ayrshire, who was great-
grandson to Robert Boyd, great Chamberlain of Scotland. Mark Boyd was
born on the 13th of January, 1562. His father having died while he was a
child, he was educated under the care of his uncle, James Boyd of Trochrig,
titular Archbishop of Glasgow. His headstrong temper showed itself in early
youth, in quarrels with his instructors, and before he had finished his academical
course, he left the care of his friends, and endeavoured to obtain some notice at
court It affords a dreadful picture of the character of Boyd, that, even in a scene
ruled by such a spirit as Stuart, Earl of Arran, he was found too violent : one duel
and numberless broils, in which he became engaged, rendered it necessary that he
Digitized by
Google
MARK BOYD. 297
should try his fortune elsewhere. By the ad-rice of his friends, who seem to have
given up all hope of bis coming to any good in his own country, he travelled to
France, in order to assume the profession of arms. While lingering at Paris, he lost
his little stock of money at dice. This seems to have revived better feelings in
his breast He began to study under various teachers at Paris ; then- went to the
university of Orleans, and took lessons in civil law from Robertas ; lastly, he
removed to Bourges, where he was received with kindness by the celebrated Cu-
jacius. This great civilian happening to have a crazy fondness for the writings
of the early Latin poets, Boyd gained his entire favour by writing a few poems
in the barbarous style of Ennius. The plague breaking out at Bourges, he was
obliged to fly to Lyons, whence he was driven by the same pestilence into Italy.
After spending some time in this country, he returned to France, and is supposed
to have there acted for some time as private tutor to a young gentleman named
Dauconet In 1587, commenced the famous wars of the League. Boyd, though
a protestant, or afterwards professing to be so, joined with the Catholic party,
in company with his pupil, and for some time led the life of a soldier of fortune.
His share in the mishaps of war, consisted of a wound in the ankle. In 1568,
the Germans and Swiss being driven out of France, the campaign terminated,
and Boyd retired to Thoulouse, where he re-commenced the study of civil law.
His studies were here interrupted by a popular insurrection in favour of the
Catholic interest, but in which he took no part Having fallen under some sus-
picion, probably on account of his country, he was seized by the insurgents, and
tlirowu into prison. By the intercession of some of his learned friends, he was
reHevt'l from this peril, and permitted to make his escape to Bourdeaux. He
has left"yi most animated account of the insurrection, from which it may be
gathered that the expedients assumed in more recent periods of French history,
for protecting cities by barricades, chains, and other devices, were equally fami-
liar in the reign of Henry the Great For several years, Boyd lived a party-
coloured life, alternating between study and war. He had a sincere passion for
arms, and entertained a notion that to live entirely without the knowledge and
practice of military affairs was only to be half a man. It is to be regretted,
that his exertions as a soldier were entirely on the side adverse to his own and
his country's faith ; a fact which proves how little he was actuated by principle.
In the nridst of all the broils of the League, he had advanced considerably in the
preparation of a series of lectures on the civil law ; but he never found an oppor-
tunity of delivering them. He also composed a considerable number of Latin poems,
which were published in one volume at Antwerp, in 1 592. Having now turned his
thoughts homewards, he endeavoured, in this work, to attract the favourable atten-
tion of James VI., by a very flattering dedication. But it does not seem to have
had any effect He does not appear to have returned tr. his native country for
some years after this period. In 1595, when bis elder brother died, he was
still in France. Returning soon after, he is said to have undertaken the duty
of travelling preceptor to John, Earl of Cassillis ; and when his task was Accom-
plished, he returned once more. He died of a slow fever, April 10th, 1601,
and wes buried in the church of Daily.
Mark Alexander Boyd left several compositions behind him, of which a few
have been published. The most admired are his " Epistofo Heroidum," and
his " Hymni," which are inserted in the " Delicias Poetarum Scotorum," published
at Amsterdam, in 1637. His style in Latin poetry is shown by Lord Hailes to
be far from correct, and his ideas are often impure and coarse. Yet when
regarded f s the effusions of a soaring genius, which seems to have looked upon
every ordinary walk of human exertion as beneath it, we may admire the gene-
ral excellence, while we overlook mean defects. The Tears of Venus on the
i. %v
Digitized by
Google
298 ROBERT BOYD.
Death of Adonis, which has been often extracted from his Epistoia, seems to me
to be a beautiful specimen of Latin versification, and in impassioned feeling
almost rivalling Pope's Eloise. An exact list of the remainder of his composi.
tions, which still lie in manuscript in the Advocates' Library, is given in his life
by Lord Hailes, which was one of the few tentamina contributed by that great
antiquary towards a Scottish Biographical Dictionary. Lord Hailes represents
the vanity of Boyd as having been very great ; but it is obvious thai he could
offer as high incense to others as to himself. He fcas the hardihood to compli-
ment the peaceful James VI. as superior to Pallas or Mars : in another place, he
speaks of that monarch as having distinguished himself at battles and sieges. It
is well known that neither the praise nor the facts were true ; and we can only
account for such inordinate flattery, by supposing, what there is really much
reason to believe, that pnnegyric in those days was a matter of course, and not
expected to contain any truth, or even vraisemblance. This theory receives
some countenance from a circumstance mentioned by Lord Hailes. The dedica-
tion, it seems, in which King James was spoken of as a hardy warrior, was ori-
ginally written for a real warrior ; but the name being afterwards changed, it
was not thought necessary to alter the praise ; and so the good Solomon, who
is said to have shrunk from the very sight of cold iron, stands forth £s a second
Agamemnon.
BOYD, Robert, of Trochrig an eminent divine of the seventeenth century, was
born at Glasgow in 1578. He was the son of James Boyd, "Tulchan-archbishop"
of Glasgow, and Margaret, daughter of James Chalmers of Gaitgirth, chief of that
name. On the death of his father, which happened when he was only three
years old, his mother retired to the family residence in Ayrshire, and Boyd,
along with Thomas, his younger brother, was in due time sent to the grammar
school of die county town. From thence he was removed to the university of
Edinburgh, where he studied philosophy under Mr Charles Ferine, (or Fairholm,)
one of the regents, and afterwards divinity under the celebrated Robert Rollock.
In compliance with the custom of the times, he then went abroad for the pur-
pose of pursuing his studies, and France was destined to be the first sphere of
his usefulness. He taught various departments- of literature in the schools of
Tours and Montauban, at the first of which places he became acquainted with
the famous Dr Rivet In 1604, he was ordained pastor of the church at Ver-
teuil, and in 1606 he was appointed one of the Professors in the university of
Saumur, which had been founded in 1 593, by the amiable Philip de Mornay,
better known by the title of Du Plessis. Boyd also discharged the duties of a
pastor in the church at the same town, and, soon after, became Professor of
Divinity. As he had now the intention of remaining for some years abroad, he
bethought himself of entering into the married state, and having met with " an
honest virgin of the family of Mali vera," says Wodrow, "he sought her parents
for their consent, who having received a satisfactory testimonial of the nobility
of his birth, and the competency of his estate, they easily yielded, and so he
took her to wife, with the good liking of the church and die university, who
hoped that by this means he would be fixed among them, so as never to enter-
tain thoughts of returning to Scotland to settle there." But in this they were
soon disappointed, for king James having heard through several noblemen, re-
lations of Mr Boyd, of his worth and talents, offered him the principalship of
the university of Glasgow.
The duties of principal in that college were, by the charter of this monarch,
not confined even to those connected with that institution. He was required to
teach theology on one day, and Hebrew and Syriac the next, alternately ; but
this was not alL The temporalities of the rectory and vicarage of Govan had
Digitized by
Google
ROBERT BOYD. 299
been annexed to it, under the condition that the principal should preach on
Sunday in the church of that parish. Under these circumstances, it could not
be expected that Mr Boyd could have much leisure to premeditate his lectures.
Wodrow informs us, that he did not read them, " but uttered all in a continued
discourse, without any hesitation, and with as much ease and freedom of speech,
as the most eloquent divine is wont to deliver his sermons in his mother tongue."
It will be remembered, that the prelections were then delivered in Latin, and
Principal Baillie, who studied under Mr Boyd, mentions that, at a distance of
thirty years, the tears, the solemn vows, and the ardour of the desires produced
by the Principal's Latin prayers, were still fresh in his memory. 1
From the assimilation which was then rapidly taking place to the episcopalian
form of church government, Mr Boyd felt his situation peculiarly unpleasant.
He could not acquiesce in the decisions of the Perth assembly, and it could not
be expected that he would be allowed to retain his office under any other condi-
tion than that of compliance. He therefore preferred voluntarily resigning his
office, and retiring to his country residence. Soon after this period, he was ap-
pointed Principal of the university of Edinburgh, and one of the ministers of
that city ; but there he was not long allowed to remain. His majesty insisted
upon his compliance with the Perth articles, and an intimation to that effect
having been made to him, he refused, and, to use the quaint expression of the
historian, "swa took his leave of them." He was now ordered to confine him-
self within the bounds of Carriole His last appointment was to Paisley, but a
quarrel soon occurred with the widow of the Earl of Abercorn, who had lately
turned papist, and this was a source of new distress to him. Naturally of a
weakly constitution, and worn down by a series of misfortunes, he now laboured
under a complication of diseases, which led to his death at Edinburgh, whither
he had gone to consult the physicians, on the 5th of January, 1627, in the 49th
year of his age.
Of his works, few of which are printed, the largest and best known is his
" Praelectiones in Epistolam ad Ephesios." From the circumstances which oc-
curred in the latter part of his life, he was prevented getting it printed as he in-
tended. After his death, a copy of the MS. was sent to Dr Rivet, who agreed
with Chouet of Geneva for the printing, but when returning to that place with
the MS. in "his possession, the ship was taken by the Dunkirkers, and the work
was seized by some Jesuits, who would part with it " nee prece nee pretio."
Fortunately the original still remained, and it was, after many delays, printed
" Impensis Societatis Stationariorum," in 1652, folio. To the work is prefixed
a memoir of the author, by Dr Rivet ; but as their acquaintance did not com-
mence till 1598 or 1599, there are several errors in his account of the earlier
part of Boyd's life, all of which Wodrow has with great industry and accuracy
corrected. The only other prose work of Mr Boyd, ever published, is his
" Monita de filii sui primogeniti Institutione, ex Authoris MSS. autographis per
R(obertum) S(ibbald), M. D. edita," 8vo, 1701. The style of this work, accord-
ing to Wodrow, is pure, the system perspicuous ; and prudence, observation, and
piety, appear throughout Besides these, the " Hecatombe ad Christum ,» the
ode to Dr Sibbald, and the laudatory poem on king James, are in print. The
two first are printed in the " Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum." The Hecatombe has
been reprinted at Edinburgh in 1701, and subsequently in the " Poetarum
Scotorum Musae Sacra." The verses to king James have been printed in
Adamson's " Muses 9 Welcome ;» and it is remarkable, that it seems to have been
altogether overlooked by Wodrow. All these poems justify the opinion, that had
i Bodii Praloctiones in Epiat. ad Ephes. Prssfat. ad Lectorcm.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
300 ZACHARY BOYD.
Boyd derated more of his attention to the composition of Latin poetry, he might
hare excelled in that elegant accomplishment
In the time of Wodrow, several MSS. still remained in the possession of the
family of Trochrig, consisting of Sermons in English and French, his Philo-
theca, a kind of obituary, extracts from which have lately been printed in the
second part of the Miscellany of the Bannatyne Club. His life has been written
at great length by the venerable historian of the sufferings of the Scottish church,
already frequently quoted. Those who wish to know more of this learned man,
than the limits of our work will permit, are referred to the very interesting
series of the Wodrow biographies in the library of the university of Glasgow —
article Boyd.
BOYD, Zachast, an eminent divine and religious writer of the seventeenth cen-
tury, was born before the year 1590, and was descended from the family of the Boyds
of Pinkell in Carrick (Ayrshire). He was cousin to Mr Andrew Boyd, bishop of
Argyle, and Mr Robert Boyd of Trochrig, whose memoirs have already been
embodied in this work. He received the rudiments of his education at the
school of Kilmarnock, and passed through an academical course in the college of
Glasgow. About the year 1607, he had finished his studies in his native coun-
try. He then went abroad, and studied at the college of Saumur in France,
under his relation Robert Boyd. He was appointed a regent in this University,
in 1611, and is said to have been offered the principalship, which he declined.
According to his own statement, he spent sixteen years in France, during four of
which he was a preacher of the gospel. In consequence of the persecution of
the protestants, he was obliged, in 1621, to return to his native country. He
relates, in one of his sermons, the following anecdote of the voyage :— " In the
time of the French persecution, I came by sea to Flanders, and as I was sailing
from Flanders to Scotland, a fearfull tempest arose, which made our mariners
reele to and fro, and stagger like drunken men. In the mean time, there was
a Scots papist who lay near mee. While the ship gave a great shake, I observed
the man, and after the Lord had sent a calme I said to him, ' Sir, now ye see the
weaknesse of your religion ; as long as yee are in prosperitie, yee cry to this
sainct and that sainct : in our great danger, I heard yee cry often, Lord, Lord ;
but not a word yee spake of our Lady.) » On his reaching Scotland, he further
informs us that he " remained a space a private man at Edinburgh, with Doctor
Sibbald, the glory and honour of all the physitians of our land.'* Afterwards,
he lived successively under the protection cf Sir William Scott of Elie, and of
the Marquis of Hamilton and his lady at Kinneil ; it being then the fashion for
pious persons of quality in Scotland, to retain one clergyman at least, as a mem-
ber of their household. In 1623, he was appointed minister of the large dis-
trict in the suburbs of Glasgow, styled the Barony Parish, for which the crypts
beneath the cathedral church then served as a place of worship ; a scene well
fitted by its sepulchral gloom, to add to the impressiveness of his Calvinistic elo-
quence. In this charge he continued all the remainder of his life. In the years
1634-35 and 45, he filled the office of Rector of the University of Glasgow; an
office which appears from its constituency to have then been very honourable.
In 1629, Mr Zachary — to use the common mode of designating a clergyman
in that .age*— published his principal prose work, u The Last Battell of the Soule
in Death; whereby are shown the diverse skirmishes that are between the soule
of man on his death-bed, and the enemies of our salvation, carefully digested for
the comfort of the Sicke, by &c Printed at Edinburgh for the heires of Andro
Hart 1 ' This is one of the few pious works not of a controversial nature, pro-
duced by the Scottish church before a very recent period ; and it is by no means
the meanest in the list It is of a dramatic, or at least a conversational form ;
and the dramatis persona, such as, " Pasteur, Sicke Man, S^irituall Friend,
Digitized by
Google
ZACHARY BOYD. 301
Carnal Friend, Sathan, Michael,** &a, suatain their parU nlth such spirit, as to
show, in connexion with his other works of the like nature, that he might hare
excelled in a department of profane literature, for which, no doubt, he enter-
tained the greatest horror, namely, writing for the stage. The first volume of
the work is dedicated, in an English address to King Charles I., and then in a
French one, to his consort Henrietta Maria. It says much for the dexterity of
Mr Zachary, that he inscribes a religious work to a Catholic Princess, without
any painful reference to her own unpopular faith. He dedicates the second
volume to the Electress Palatine, daughter of James VI., and adds a short piece,
which he styles her " Lamentations for the death of her son," who was drowned
while crossing in a ferry-boat to Amsterdam. The extravagant grief which he
describes in this little work is highly amusing. It strikes him that the Electress
must hare conceived a violent antipathy to water, in consequence of the mode of
her son's death, and he therefore makes her conclude her lamentations in the
following strain :
" O cursed waters ! O waters of Marah, full bitter are yee to me ! O element
which of all others shall be most detestable to my soule, / shall never wash
mine hands with thee, but I shall remember what thou hast done to my best
beloved sonne, the darling of my soul! / shall for ever be a friend to the
fire, which is thy greatest foe. Away rivers ! away seas ! Let me see you no
more. If yee were sensible creatures, my dear brother Charles, Prince of the
European seas, should scourge you with his royal ships ; with his thundering
cannons, he should pierce you to the bottom.
" O seas of sorrowes, O fearfull floodes, O tumbling tempests, O wilfull waves,
O swelling surges, wicked waters, O dooleful deepes, feartest pooles, O botch-,
ful butcher boates, was there no mercy among you for such an hopefull Prince ?
O that I could refraine from teares, and that because they are salt like your-
selves!" &c.
Childish as this language is in spirit, it is perhaps in as good taste as most of
the elegies produced either by this or by a later age.
Mr Zachary appears to have been naturally a high loyalist In 1633, when
Charles I. visited his native dominions, to go through the ceremony of his corona-
tion, Mr Zachary met him, the day after that solemnity, in the porch of Holy-
rood Palace, and addressed him in a Latin oration couched in the most exalted
strains of panegyric and affection. He afterwards testified this feeling under
circumstances more apt to test its sincerity. When the attempt to impose the
episcopal mode of worship upon Scotland, caused the majority of the people to
unite in a covenant for the purpose of maintaining the former system, the whole
of the individuals connected with Glasgow college, together with Mr Zachary, set
themselves against a document, which, however well-meant and urgently neces-
sary, was certainly apt to become a stumbling-block in the subsequent proceed-
ings of the country. These divines resolved rather to yield a little to the wishes
of their sovereign, than fly into open rebellion against him. Mr Robert Baillie
paid them a visit, to induce them to subscribe the covenant, but was not success-
ful : " we left them," says he, " resolved to celebrate the Communion on Pasch
in the High Church, kneeling*" 1 This must have been about a month after the
subscription of the covenant had commenced. Soon afterwards, mort of these
recusants, including Mr Zachary, found it necessary to conform, for wl.*re the
majority is very powerful or very violent, no minority can exist. Baillie says,
in a subsequent letter, 8 " At our townsmen's desire, Mr Andrew Cant and Mr J.
Rutherford were sent by the nobles to preach in the High Kirk, and receive the
oaths of that people to the covenant Lord Eglintoune was appointed to be a
» Baillie'* Letters, i, 46. * Ibid, i, 66.
Digitized by
Google
302 ZACHARY BOYD.
witness there. With many a ugh and tear, by all that people the oath was made-
Provost, bailies, council, all, except three men, held up their hands ; Mr Zacha-
Has, and Mr John Bell younger, has put to their hands. The College, it U
thought, will subscribe, and almost all who retused before.**
Though Boyd was henceforth a faithful adherent of this famous bond, he did
not tike the same active share with some of his brethren, in the military proceed-
ings by which it was supported. While Baillie and others followed the army,
* as the fashion was, with a sword and pair of Dutch pistols at their saddles,'** he
remained at home in the peaceful exercise of his calling, and was content to
sympathize in their successes by hearsay. He celebrated the fight at Newburn-
ford, August 28, 1640, by which the Scottish covenanting army gained posses-
sion of Newcastle, in a poem of sixteen 8vo. pages, which is written, however,
in such a homely style of versification, that we would suppose it to be among the
very earliest of his poetical efforts. It opens with a panegyric on the victorious
Lesly, and then proceeds to describe the battle.
The Scots cannons powder and ball did spew,
Which with terror the Canterburians slew.
Bals rushed at random, which most fearfully
Menaced to break the portals of the sky.
# # # #
In this conflict, which was both sowre and surly,
Bones, blood, and braines went in a hurly-burly.
All was made hodge-podge, &r.
The pistol bullets were almost as bad as the cannon balls. They —
in squadrons came, like fire and thunder,
Men's hearts and heads both for to pierce and plunder;
Their errand was, (when it was understood,)
To bathe men's bosoms in a scarlet flood.
At last comes the wail for the fallen —
In this conflict, which was a great pitfe,
We lost the son of Sir Patrick Makgie.
In 1643, he published a more useful work in his " Crosses, Comforts, and
Councels, needfull to be considered and carefully to be laid up in the hearts of
the Godly, in these boysterous broiles, and bloody times." We also find from
the titles of many of his manuscript discourses that, with a diligent and affection-
ate zeal for the spiritual edification of the people under his charge, he had im-
proved the remarkable events of the time as they successively occurred.
That the reluctance of Mr Zachary to join the Covenanters did not arise from
timidity of nature, seems to be proved by an incident which occurred at a later
period of his life. After the death of Charles I. it is well known that the Scot-
tish presbyterians made a gallant effort to sustain the royal authority against the
triumphant party of independents. They invited home the son of the late king,
and rendered him at least the limited monarch of Scotland. Cromwell, having
crossed the Tweed with an army, overthrew the Scottish forces at Dunbar, Sep-
tember 3, 1650 ; and gained possession of the southern portion of the country.
Glasgow was, of course, exposed to a visit from this unscrupulous adversary.
" Cromwell," says Baillie, u with the whole body of his army, comes peaceably to
Glasgow. The magistrates and ministers all fled away; I got to the isle of
Cumray, with my Lady Montgomery, but left all my family and goods to Crom-
well's courtesy, which indeed was great, for he took such measures with the sol-
> Baillie'a Letters, i, 174.
Digitized by
Google
ZACHARY BOYD.
303
diers, that they did less displeasure at Glasgow than if they had been at London,
though Mr Zachary Boyd railed on them all to their very face in the High
Church." This was on the 13th of October, and we learn from a manuscript
note upon the preacher's own bible, that the chapter which he expounded on
this occasion, was the eighth of the book of DanieL In this is detailed the
vision of the ram with two horns, which is at first powerful, but at length over-
come and trampled down by a he-goat ; being an allegory of the destruction of
the kings of Media and Persia by Alexander of Macedon, It is evident that
Mr Zachary endeavoured to extend the parable to existing circumstances, and of
course made out Cromwell to be the he-goat. The preacher further chose for
a text the following passage in the Psalms. " But I as a deaf man heard not ;
and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man
that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord,
do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God." — Ps. xxxviii, 13, 14, 15. This
sermon was probably by no means faithful to its text, for certainly Mr Zachary
was not the man to keep a mouth clear of reproofs when he saw occasion for
blame. The exposition, at least, was so full of bitter allusions to the sectarian
General, that one of his officers is reported to have whispered into his ear for
permission " to pistol the scoundrel'' Cromwell had more humanity and good
sense than to accede to such a request " No, no," said he, " we will manage
liim in another way/' He asked Mr Zachary to dine with him, and gained his
respect by the fervour of the devotions in which he spent the evening. It is
said that they did not finish their mutual exercise till three in the morning. 4
Mr Zachary did not long survive this incident He died about the end of the
year, 1653, or the beginning of 1654, when the famous Mr Donald Cargill was
appointed his successor. " In the conscientious discharge of his duty as a
preacher of God's word, which he had at the same time exercised with humility,
he seems whether in danger or out of it, to have been animated with a heroic
firmness. In a mind such as his, so richly stored with the noble examples fur-
nished by sacred history, and with such a deep sense of the responsibility attached
to his office, we are prepared to expect the same consistency of principle, and
decision of conduct in admonishing men, even of the most exalted rank. * * *
We have every reason to suppose that the tenor of his conduct in life became the
high office of which he made profession. From the sternness with which he
censures manners and customs prevalent in society, the conforming to many of
which could incur no moral guilt, it is to be presumed that he was of the most
rigid and austere class of divines. * * * We are ignorant of any of the
circumstances attending his last moments, a time peculiarly interesting in the
life of every man ; but from what we know of him, we may venture to say, with-
out the hazard of an erroneous conclusion, that his state of mind, at the trying
hour, was that of a firm and cheerful expectation in the belief in the great doc-
trines of Christianity, which he had so earnestly inculcated, both from the pul-
pit and the press, with the additional comfort and support of a long and labo-
rious life in his Master's service. About twenty-five years before his death, he
was so near the verge of the grave, that his friends had made the necessary pre-
paration for his winding sheet, which he afterwards found among his books,
lie seems to have recovered from the disease with a renewed determination to
* The accurate editor of a new edition of * The Last Batlell of the Soule,*' (Glasgow*
18S1,) from whose memoir of Mr Zachary most of these facts are taken, blames Mr Baillie
in my opinion, unjustly, for having fled on this occasion, while Mr Zachary had the supe-
rior courage to remain. It should be recollected that Mr Baillie had particular reason to
dread the vengeance of Cromwell and his army, having been one of the principal indivi-
duals concerned in the bringing home of the King, and consequently in the provocation of
the present war.
Digitized by
Google
304
ZACHARY BOYD.
employ the remainder of his life in the cause to which he had been previously
devoted : he pursued perse veringly to near its termination, this happy course,
and just lived to complete an extensive manuscript work, bearing for its title.
* The Notable places of the Scripture expounded, 9 at the end of which he adds,
in a tremulous and indistinct hand-writing, * Heere the author was neere his
end, and was able to do no more, March 3d, 1653.' '*
Mr Zachary had been twice married, first, to Elizabeth Fleming, of whom no
memorial is preserved, and secondly, to Margaret Mure, third daughter of Wil-
liam Mure of Glanderston, ( near Neilston, Renfrewshire.) By neither of his
wives had he any offspring. The second wife, surviving him, married for her
second husband the celebrated Durham, author of the Commentary on the Re-
velation — to whom, it would appear, she had betrayed some partiality even
in her first husband's lifetime. There is a traditional anecdote, that, when Mr
Zachary was dictating his last will, his spouse- made one modest request, namely,
that he would bequeath something to Mr Durham. He answered, with a sarcastic
reference to herself; " Ml lea* him what I canna keep frae him.'* He seems to
have possessed an astonishing quantity of worldly goods for a Scottish clergy-
man of that period. He had lent eleven thousand merks to Mure of Rowallan,
five thousand to the Earl of Glencairn, and six thousand to the Earl of Loudon ;
which sums, with various others, swelled his whole property in money to j€4527
Scots. This, after the deduction of certain expenses, was divided, in terms of
his will, between his relict and the college of Glasgow. About £20,000 Scots is
said to have been the sum realized by the College, besides his library and man-
uscript compositions ; but it is a mistake that he made any stipulation as to the
publication of his writings, or any part of them. To this splendid legacy, we
appear to be chiefly indebted for the present elegant buildings of the College,
which were mostly erected under the care of Principal Gillespie during the
period of the Commonwealth. In gratitude for the munificent gift of Mr Zachary,
a bust of his figure was erected over the gateway within the court, with an appro-
priate inscription. There is also a portrait of him in the Divinity Hall of the
College. Nineteen works, chiefly devotional and religious, and none of them of
great extent, were published by Mr Zachary during his lifetime ; but these bore
a small proportion to his manuscript writings, which are no less than eighty-six
in number, chiefly comprised within thirteen quarto volumes, written in a very
close hand, apparently for the press. Besides those contained in the thirteen
volumes, are three others — " Zion*s Flowers, or Christian Poems for Spiritual
Edification.** 2 vols. 4to. " The English Academie, containing precepts and
purpose for the weal both of Soul and Body,*' 1 vol 12mo. and "The Four
Evangels in English verse.''
" Mr Boyd appears to have been a scholar of very considerable learning. He
composed in Latin, and his qualifications in that language may be deemed
respectable. His works also bear the evidence of his having been possessed of
a critical knowledge of the Greek, Hebrew, and other languages, As a prose
writer, he will bear comparison with any of the Scottish divines of the same age.
He is superior to Rutherford, and, in general, more grammatically correct than
even Baillie himself, who was justly esteemed a very learned man. His style
may be considered excellent for the period. Of his characteristics as a writer,
his originality of thought is particularly striking. He discusses many of his sub-
jects with spirit and ingenuity, and there is much which must be acknowledged
as flowing from a vigorous intellect, and a fervid, and poetical imagination. This
latter tendency of his genius is at all times awake, and from which may be
inferred his taste for metaphor, and love of colouring, so conspicuous in his
* Life prefixed to new edition of "The Last Battell of the Soule."
Digitized by
Google
ZACHAKY BOYD.
305
writings* He lias great fertility of explication, amounting often to diffusetiess s
and t in many cases^ it would hare been well had he known whan* to have
paused. With exit 1 uiive powers of graphic: delineation, he is an instructive and
interesting writer, though duelling too much tipnn minute circumstances. He
seems naturally to have been a man of an agreeable temperament* and as a con-
sequence, at times, blends, with the subject on which be dilates, a dash of hit
own good nature, in some humorous and witty observations. His irony, often
well-tuned and well-turned t comes down with the forw of illu5tration, and the sneet
of sarcastic rebuke. A close observer of mankind and their actions, the judj^
incut lie forms respecting them, is that of a shrewd, sagacious* and penetrating
mind Like a skilful master of Ids profession, he discovers an intimate know-
ledge of the manifold, and secret, uurkinvrs of the depravity of the human
heart; and though gome of the disclosures of its wickedness may not he con-
veyed in the most polished tern is. we commend the honesty and simplicity of
his heart, who had invariably followed the pmd M practice of a sincere and
wholesome plainness. His prayers ureal he the warm and powerful strains of a
devotional mind, and a rich vein of feeling and piety runs through the matter
of all his meditations. We have now to notice Mr Boyd in the character in
which he has hitherto been best kunun to the world, namely, in that of a poet
One of bis most popular attempts to render himself serviceable to his country was
in preparing a poetical version of the Book of Psalms for the use of the church.
It had been previous to lG4ti that he engaged in this, as the Assembly of Hi 17,
when appointing a committee to examine Hous's version, which had been trans-
mitted to them by the Assembly at Westminster, * recommended them to avail
themselves uf the psalter of Kowallan, and of Mr Zachary Boyd, and of any
other poetical writers/ It is further particularly recommended to Mr Zachary
Boyd to translate the other Scriptural Songs in metre, and to report bis travails
therein to tke commission of that Assembly : that ailer their examination thereof
they may send the same to tke presbyteries to be there considered until the next
General Assembly, ( Assembly Acts, Aug. 28, 1017.)* iMr Boyd complied
with this request, as the Assembly, Aug. 10* lb" 4- 8, 'recommends to Mr John
Adainson and Mr Thomas Crawford to revise the labours of Mr Zacltary Boyd
upon the other Scripture Songs, and to prepare a report thereof to the said com*
mission for pub lick affairs/ who, it is probable, had never given in any * report
of their labours. 1 Of his version, Baillie had not entertained a high opinion, as
he says, ■ Our good friend, Mr Zacliary Boyd, has put himself to a great deal of
pains and charges to make a psalter, but 1 ever warned him his hopes were
groundless to get it received in our churches, yet the flatteries of Jus unadvised
neighbours makes hi in insist in his fruitless design.' There seems to bare been
a party who did not undervalue Mr Boyd's labours quite su much as Baillie, and
who, if possible, uere determined to carry their point, as, according to BailhVa
statement, * The I'sahns were often revised, and ^iit to presbyteries/ and, l had
it not been fur some who had more regard than needed to Mr Zachary Boyd'i
psalter, I tliink they {Ratios vemiwi) had passed through in tke end of last
Assembly ; but these, with almost all the references from the former Assemblies,
were remitted to the next.' Un 23t\ November, 1G4!>, ftous*3 version, revised
and improved, was sanctioned by the commission with authority of the tieneral
Assembly, and any other discharged from being; used in the churches, or its
families, Mr Boyd was thus deprived of the honour to which he aspired with
some degree of zeal, and it must have been to himself and friends, a source of
considerable disappointment.
" Among other works, he produced two volumes, under the title of ' Zion's
Flowers, or Christian Poems for Spiritual! Edification,* and it is these which
2a
Digitized by
Google
306
ZACHARY BOYD.
are usually shown as his bible, and hare received that designation. These
volumes consist of a collection of poems on select subjects in Scripture history,
such as that of Josiah, Jephtha, David and Goliah, &c rendered into the drama-
tic form, in which various ' speakers » are introduced, and where the prominent
facts of the Scripture narrative are brought forward, and amplified. \Ve have a
pretty close parallel to these poems, in the '' Ancient Mysteries » of the thirteen tf
and fourteenth centuries, and in the sacred dramas of some modern writers."
The preceding criticism and facts which we have taken the liberty to borrow
from Mr Neil, 1 form an able and judicious defence of the memory of this distin-
guished man. As some curiosity, however, may reasonably be entertained
respecting compositions which excited so much vulgar and ridiculous misrepre-
sentation, we shall make no apology for introducing some specimens of Mr Boyd's
poetry — both of that kind which seems to have been dictated when his Pegasus
was careering through " the highest heaven of invention/' and of that other sort
which would appear to have been conceived while the sacred charger was canter-
ing upon the mean soil of this nether world, which it sometimes did, I must
confess, very much after the manner of the most ordinary beast of burden.
The following Morning Hymn for Christ, selected from his work entitled, " The
English Academie,'' will scarcely fail to convey a respectful impression of tits
writer : —
O Day Spring from on high,
Cause pass away our night;
Clear first our morning sky,
And after shine thou bright
Of lights thou art the light,
Of righteousness the sun ;
Thy beams they are most bright,
Through all the world they run.
The day thou hast begun
Thou wilt it clearer make ;
We hope to see this Sun
High in our Zodfak.
O make thy morning dew
To fall without all cease ;
Do thou such favour show
As unto Gideon's fleece.
O do thou never cease
To make that dew to fall —
The dew of grace and peace,
And joys celestial.
This morning we do call
Upon thy name divine,
That thou among us all
Cause thine Aurora shine.
Let shadows all decline,
And wholly pass away,
That light which is divine,
May bring to us our day.
A day to shine forgave,
A day that is most bright,
A day that never may
Be followed with a night.
O, of all lights the light,
The Light that is most true,
Now banish thou our night,
And still our light renew.
Thy face now to us show
O son of God most dear;
O Morning Star, most true,
Make thou our darkness clear.
Nothing at all is here,
That with thee may compare ;
O unto us draw near,
And us thy children spare !
Thy mercies they are rare,
If they were understood ;
Wrath due to us thou bare,
And for us shed thy blood.
Like beasts they are most rude,
Whom reason cannot move—
Thou most perfytely good,
Entirely for to love.
Us make mind things above,
Even things that most excell ;
Of thine untainted love,
Give us the sacred seal.
O that we light could see
That shineth in thy race !
So, at the last, should we
From glory go to grace.
Within thy sacred place
Is only true content,
When God's seen face to face,
Above the firmament
Life of Zachary Boyd, prefixed to the new Edition of his "Last Battellof the Soule."
Digitized by
Google
JAMES BROWN. 307
O that our hours were spent,
Among the sons of men,
n To praise the Omnipotent,
Amen, yea, and Amen !
The ludicrous passages are not many in number. The following is one which
Pennant first presented to the world ; being the soliloquy of Jonah within the
whale's belly ; taken from " The Flowers of Zion :»— -
Here apprehended 1 in prison ly ;
What goods will ransom my captivity ?
What house is this, where's neither coal nor candle.
Where I nothing but guts of fishes handle ?
I and my table are both here within,
Where day neere dawned, where sunne did never shine,
The like of this on earth man never saw,
A living man within a monster's maw.
Buried under mountains which are high and steep,
Plunged under waters hundreth fathoms deep.
Not so was Noah in his house of tree,
For through a window he the light did see ;
Hee sailed above the highest waves— a wonder;
I and my boat are all the waters under;
Hee in his ark might goe and also come,
But 1 sit still in such a straitened roome
As is most uncouth, head and feet together,
Among such grease as would a thousand smother.
I find no way now for my shrinking hence,
But heere to lie and die for mine offence ;
Eight prisoners were in Noah's hulk together
Comfortable they were, each one to other.
'In all the earth like unto mee is none,
Far from all living, I heere lye alone,
Where I entombed in melancholy sink,
Choakt, suffocat, &c.
And it is straige that, immediately after this grotesque description of his situa-
tion, Pegasus again ascends, and Jonah begins a prayer to God, conceived in a
fine strain of devotion.
BROWN, Jambs, a traveller and scholar of some eminence, was the son of
James Brown, M. D. who published a translation of two " Orations of Isocrates,"
without his name, and who died in 1733. The subject of this article was born
at Kelso, May 23d, 1709, and was educated at Westminster School, where he
made great proficiency in the Latin and Greek classics. In the year 1722,
when less than fourteen years of age, he accompanied. .his father to Constanti-
nople, where, having naturally an aptitude for the acquisition of languages, he
made himself a proficient in Turkish, modern Greek, and Italian. On his re-
turn in 1725, he added the Spanish to the other languages which he had already
mastered. About 1732, he was the means of commencing the publication of
the London Directory, a work of vast utility in the mercantile world, and which
has since been imitated in almost every considerable town in the empire. After
having laid the foundation of this undertaking, he transferred his interest in it
to Mr Henry Kent, a printer in Finch-Lane, Cornhill, who carried it on for
many years, and eventually, through its means, acquired a fortune and an estate.
In 1741, Brown entered into an engagement with twenty-four of the principal
merchants in London, to act as their chief agent in carrying on a trade, through
Russia, with Persia. Having travelled to that country by the Wolga and die
Digitized by
Google
308 JOHN BROWN.
Caspian Sea, he established a factory at Reshd, where he continued nearly four
yean. During this time, he travelled in state to the camp of the famous Kouli
| Khan, with a letter which had been transmitted to him by George IL for that
monarch. He also rendered himself such a proficient in the Persic language, am
to be able, on his return, to compile a copious dictionary and grammar, with
many curious specimens of Persic literature, which, however, was never published.
A sense of the dangerous situation of the settlement, and his dissatisfaction with
some of his employers, were the causes of his return ; and his remonstrances on
these subjects were speedily found to be just, by the factory being plundered of
property to the amount of L. 80,000, and a period being put to the Persian
trade. From his return in 1746 to his death, which took place in his house at
Stoke Newington, November 30, 1788, he appears to have lived in retirement
upon his fortune. In the obituary of the Gentleman's Magazine, he is charac-
terised as a person of strict integrity, unaffected piety, and exalted but unosten-
tatious benevolence.
BROWN, John, author of the " Self-Interpreting Bible/ 1 and many popular
religious works, was born in the year 1722 at Carpow, a village in the parish
of Abernethy and county of Perth. His father, for the greatest part of his life,
followed the humble occupation of a weaver, and was entirely destitute of the
advantages of regular education, but, nevertheless, seems to have been a man of
superior intelligence and worth, and even to have possessed some portion of that
zeal in the pursuit of knowledge, and that facility in acquiring it without the ordi-
nary helps, which his son so largely inherited. In consequence of the circum-
stances of his parents, John Brown was able to spend but a very limited time at
school in acquiring the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. " One
month," he has himself told us, " without his parent's allowance, he bestowed
upon Latin." His thirst for knowledge was intense, and excited him even at
this early period to extraordinary diligence in all departments of study, but
particularly to religious culture. r lhe strong direction of his mind from the be-
ginning to scholarship in general, and to that kind of it more closely connected
with divinity in particular, seems to have early suggested to his mother the pos-
sibility of his one day finding scope for the indulgence of his taste in the service
of the church, and made her often picture, in the visions of maternal fondness,
the day when she should, to use her own homely expression, '* see the crows fly.
ing over her bairn's kirk."
About the eleventh year of his age he was deprived by death of his father, and
soon after of his mother, and was himself reduced, by four successive attacks of
fever, to a state which made it probable that he was about speedily to join his
parents in the grave. But having recovered from this illness, he had the good
fortune to find a friend and protector in John Ogilvie, a shepherd venerable for
age, and eminent for piety, who fed his flock among the neighbouring mountains.
This worthy individual was an elder of the parish of Abernethy, yet, though a
person of intelligence and religion, was so destitute of education as to be unable
even to read — a circumstance which may appear strange to those accustomed to
hear of the universal diffusion of elementary education among the Scottish
peasantry, but which is to be accounted for in this case, as in that of the elder
Broun, by the disordered state of all the social institutions in Scotland previous
to the close of the seventeenth century. To supply his own deficiency, Ogilvie
was glad to engage young Brown to assist him in tending his flock, and read to
him during the intervals of comparative inaction and repose which his occupa-
tion afforded. To screen themselves from the storm and the heat, they built a
tittle lodge among the hills, and to this their mountain tabernacle (long after
pointed out under this name by the peasants) they frequently repaired to cele-
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BROWN. 309
brate their pastoral devotions. Often " the wilderness and the solitary place
were glad for them, and the desert rejoiced even with joy and singing."
Ere long it happened that Ogilvie retired from his occupation as a shepherd,
and settled in the town of Abernethy. In consequence of this change, young
Brown entered the service of a neighbouring farmer, who maintained a more
numerous establishment than his former friend. This step he laments as having
been followed by much practical apostasy from God, and showed itself in a sensi-
ble decline of religious attainments, and a general lukewarmness in religious
duty. Still, however, during the season of backsliding which he himself saw
reason thus to deplore, his external character was remarkably distinguished by
many virtues, and especially by the rare and truly Christian grace of meekness.
In the year 1733, four ministers of the Church of Scotland, among whom was
Mr Moncrieff of Abernethy, declared a secession from its judicatures, alleging as
their reasons for taking this step the following list of grievances ; " The suf-
ferance of eiTor without adequate censure ; the infringement of the rights of the
Christian people in the choice and settlement of ministers under the law of
patronage ; the neglect or relaxation of discipline ; the restraint of ministerial
freedom in opposing mal-administration, and the refusal of the prevailing party
to be reclaimed." To this body our young shepherd early attached himself, and
ventured to conceive the idea of one day becoming a shepherd of souls in that
connection. He accordingly prosecuted his studies with increasing ardour and
diligence, and began to attain considerable knowledge of Latin and Greek.
These acquisitions he made entirely without aid from others, except that he was
able occasionally to snatch an hour when the flocks were folded at noon, in order
to seek the solution of such difficulties as his unaided efforts could not master, from
two neighbouring clergymen — the one Mr Moncrieff of Abernethy , who has just
been mentioned as one of the founders of the Secession, and the other Mr Johnston of
Arngask, father of the late venerable Dr Johnston of North-Leith ; both of whom
were very obliging and communicative, and took great interest in promoting
the progress of the studious shepherd-boy. An anecdote has been preserved of
this part of his b'fe and studies which deserves to be mentioned. He had now
acquired so much knowledge of Greek as encouraged him to hope that he might
at length be prepared to reap the richest of all rewards which classical learning
could confer on him, the capacity of reading, in the original tongue, the blessed
New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Full of this hope, he
became anxious to possess a copy of the invaluable volume. One night, accord-
ingly, having folded his flocks in safety, and his fellow-shepherd, whose senti-
ments towards him were now those of friendship and veneration, having under-
taken to discharge his pastoral duties for the succeeding day, he set out on
a midnight-journey to St Andrews, a distance of twenty-four miles. Having
reached his destination in the morning, he repaired straightway to the nearest
bookseller, and asked for a copy of the Greek New Testament The master of
the shop, though, situated as he was in a provincial Scottish University, he must
have been accustomed to hear such books inquired for by youths whose appear-
ance and habiliments were none of the most civilized, was nevertheless somewhat
astonished by such an application from so unlikely a person, and was rather
disposed to taunt him with its presumption. Meanwhile a party of gentlemen,
said to have been professors in the university, entered the shop, and having un-
derstood the matter, questioned the lad about his employment and studies.
After hearing his tile, one of them desired the bookseller to bring the volume,
who accordingly produced it, and throwing it down upon the table, " Boy," said
he, " read that book, and you shall have it for nothing." The offer was too
good to be rejected, and young Brown, having acquitted himself to the admira-
Digitized by
Google
31U JOHN BROWN.
tion of his judges, carried off his cheaply-purchased Testament in triumph, and,
ere the evening arrived, was studying it in the midst of his flock upon the hilb
of Abernethy.
His extraordinary acquisitions about this time subjected him to a suspicion,
which was more generally entertained than would now appear credible, tliat lie
received a secret aid from the enemy of man, upon the pledge of his own souL
It was probably in consequence of the annoyance he experienced on this account,
that he abandoned the occupation of a shepherd, and undertook that of pedlar or
travelling-merchant This mode of life was once of much greater importance
and higher esteem in Scotland than at present, when the facilities of communi-
cation between all parts of the country and the greater seats of commerce
have been multiplied to such a degree, and was often pursued by persons of great
intelligence and respectability. Its peculiar tendency to imbue the mind with a
love of nature, and form it to a knowledge of the world, have been finely illus-
trated by a great poet of our day : nor is the Scottish pedlar of the Excursion,
though certainly somewhat too metaphysical and liberal, in every respect the un-
natural character which it has been represented. It will not, however, be
considered very surprising when we say, that young Brown did not shine in his
new profession. During his mercantile peregrinations, which lay chiefly in the
interior parts of Fife and Kinrosshire, he made it a rule to call at no house of
which the family had not the character of being religious and given to reading.
When he was received into any such dwelling, his first care was to have all the
books it could furnish collected together, among which, if he did but light upon
a new one, with avidity he fell to the literary feast, losing in the appetite of the
soul, the hunger of the body, and in the traffic of knowledge forgetting the mer-
chandise of pedlar's wares. It is related, and may well be believed, that the-
contents of his pack, on his return to head quarters from one of his expeditions,
used to present a lively image of chaos, and that he was very glad to express his
obligations to any neat-handed housewife who would take the arrangement of
them upon herselC Many a time and oft was he prudently reminded of the
propriety of attending more to his business, and not wasting his time on what did
not concern him — till his monitors at last gave up the case in despair, and wisely
shaking their heads, pronounced him " good for nothing but to be a scholar. 9 '
Soon after the close of the Rebellion of 1745, during which period be served
as a volunteer in the regiment of militia raised by the county of Fife, in behalf
of the government, he resolved to undertake the more dignified duties of school-
master. He established himself in the year 1747 at Gairney Bridge, a village in
the neighbourhood of Kinross, and there laid the foundation of a school which
subsisted for a considerable time, and, fifteen years after, was taught by another
individual whose name has also become favourably known to the world — whose
lot, however, was not like his predecessor's, to come to the grave " like a shock
of corn fully ripe," but to wither prematurely " in the morn and liquid dew of
youth," — the tender and interesting young- poet, Michael Bruce. During Mr
Brown's incumbency, which lasted for two yean, this school was remarkably suc-
cessful, and attracted scholars from a considerable distance. He afterwards taught
for a year and a half another school at Spittal, in the congregation of Linton,
under Mr James Mair. The practical character of his talents, the accuracy of
his learning, the intimate experience which, as a self-taught scholar, he must
have had of elementary difficulties, and the best mode of solving them, and the
conscientiousness and assiduity which always formed distinguishing features of
his character — must have peculiarly qualified him for the discharge of his present
duties. While active in superintending the studies of others, he did not relax in
the prosecution of his own. On the contrary, liis ardour seems to have led him
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BROWN.
311
into imprudent extremes of exertion. He would commit to memory fifteen chap-
ters of the Bible as an evening exercise after the labours of the day, and after
such killing efforts, allow himself but four hours of repose. To this excess of
exertion he was probably stimulated by the near approach of the period to which
he had long- looked forward with trembling hope — the day which was to reward
the toils and trials of his various youth, by investing him with the solemn func-
tion of an ambassador of Christ During the vacations of his school, he was now
engaged in the regular study of philosophy and divinity under the inspection of
the Associate Synod, and the superintendence of the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, and
James Fisher, two of the original founders, and principal lights of the Secession
church. At length, in the year 1751, having completed his preparatory course
of study, and approved himself on trial before the Associate Presbytery of Edin-
burgh, he was licensed by that reverend body, at Dalkeith, to preach the gospel
in their society. He entered upon the sacred work with deep impressions of its
solemn responsibilities. He has himself mentioned that his mind, immediately
previous to his receiving authority to preach, was very vividly affected by that
awful text in Isaiah vi. D, 10, " He said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye in-
deed, but understand not ; see ye indeed, but perceive not ; make the heart of
this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and
convert and be healed." He had not been long a probationer, when he re-
ceived two nearly simultaneous calls to the settled discharge of ministerial duty ;
one from the congregation of Stow, a village in the shire of Edinburgh, and the
other from that of Haddington, the principal town in the county of that name.
The Presbytery of Edinburgh, within whose bounds both congregations were in-
cluded, and which had therefore, according to the Presbyterian constitution, the
right of deciding between their competing claims, submitted the matter to his
own discretion. His choice was determined to Haddington, partly by his feel-
ings of sympathy with that congregation for disappointments it had already ex-
perienced, and partly by his modest estimate of his own qualifications, to which
he felt the smaller of the two charges more suitable. Over this congregation
therefore he was finally ordained pastor in the month of June, 1751. It de-
serves to be mentioned, however, that he continued regularly to visit and examine
the congregation of Stow until it was supplied with a regular minister.
To the duties of the sacred office he devoted himself with the most zealous and
laborious industry. The smallness of his congregation enabled him at once to
undertake the widest range of ministerial duty, and to execute it with the great-
est minuteness and accuracy. Besides regularly preaching four discourses every
Sunday during the summer, and three during winter in his own place of worship,
and occasionally in the country during the week, he visited all his people an-
nually in his pastoral capacity, and carried them twice in the same period through
a course of public catechetical examinations. He was very assiduous in his visits
to the sick and the afflicted, and that not merely to those of his own congrega-
tion, but to all, of every denomination, who desired his services. The peculiar
characteristic of his manner of address on all these occasions, public and private,
was an intense solemnity and earnestness, which extorted attention even from
the scorner, and was obviously the genuine expression of his own overwhelming
sense of the reality and importance of the message. " His grave appearance,"
says a late English divine, who had attended his ministry for some time, " his
solemn, weighty, and energetic manner of speaking, used to affect me very much.
Certainly his preaching was close, and his address to the conscience pungent
Like his Lord and Master, he spoke with authority and hallowed pathos, having
tasted the sweetness and felt the power of what he delivered." To the same
Digitized by
Google
312 JOHN BROWN.
effect, the celebrated David Hume, haying been led to hear him preach on one
occasion at North Berwick, remarked, " That old man preaches as if Christ were
at his elbow/' Except for his overawing seriousness, and occasionally a melt-
ing sweetness in his voice, it does not appear that his delivery was by any means
attractive. " It was my mercy," he says, with characteristic modesty, that "the
Lord, who had given me some other talents, withheld from me a popular delivery,
so that though my discourses were not disrelished by the serious, so far rs I
heard, yet they were not so agreeable to many hearts as those of my brethren,
which it was a pleasure to me to see possessed of that talent which the Lord, to
restrain my pride, had denied to me." His labours were not in vain in the
Lord. The members of his congregation, the smallness of which he often spoke
of as a mercy, seem to have been enabled to walk, in a great measure, suitably to
their profession and their privileges; and he had less experience than most
ministers of that bitterest of all trials attached to a conscientious pastor's situa-
tion — scandalous irregularities of practice among those in regard to whom he
can have no greater joy than to see them walking in the truth. In ecclesiastical
policy, he was a staunch Presbyterian and Seceder in the original sense of the
term, as denoting an individual separated, not from the constitution of the esta-
blished church, either as a church or as an establishment, but from the policy and
control of the predominant party in her judicatures. At the unhappy division of
the Secession church in 1745, commonly known by the name of the Breach, on
the question of making refusal of the burgess oath a term of communion, though
personally doubtful of the propriety of a Seceder's swearing the oath in question,
lie attached himself to that party, who, from declining peremptorily to pronounce
it unlawful, obtained the popular appellation of Burghers, — justly considering
that a difference of opinion on this point was by no means of sufficient impor-
tance to break the sacred bond of Christian fellowship. His public prayers
were liberal and catholic, and he always showed the strongest affection for gospel
ministers and true Christians of every name. In an unpublished letter to a
noble lady of the episcopal communion, he expresses his hope " that it will afford
her a delightful satisfaction to observe how extensive and important the agree-
ment, and how small the difference of religious sentiments, between a professedly
staunch Presbyterian and a truly conscientious Episcopalian, if they both cor-
dially believe the doctrine of God's free grace reigning to men's eternal life,
through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord" He made a point
of regularly attending and acting in the church courts, though he avoided taking
any leading part in the management of ecclesiastical business. The uniformity
and universality of his habits of personal devotion were remarkable. Of him it
might well be said, that he walked with God, and that in God he, as it were to
his own consciousness, lived, and moved, and had his being. He had acquired a
holy skill in deriving, from every scene of nature, and every incident of life,
occasions of Christian thought, impulses of Christian feeling, motives to Christian
duty. His " Christian Journal » seems to have been literally the picture of his
daily course and association of ideas, and the beautiful motto he has prefixed to
it, to have been the expression of his own experience : " The ear that is ever
attentive to God never hears a voice that speaks not of Him ; the soul, whose eye
is intent on him, never sees an atom in which she doth not discern her Best
Beloved. 1 ' He could hold sweet communion with his heavenly Father in the
most terrible displays of His majesty, not less than in the softer manifestations ol
His benignity. One day, hearing a tremendous crash of thunder, he smilingly
exclaimed to those around, " That is the low whisper of my God." His seasons
of prayer, stated and special, secret and domestic, were frequent beyond the rule*
of any prescribed routine. Often was he overheard, in the nightly and the
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BROWN. 313
morning watches, conversing with his God in prayer and praise, remembering
his Maker upon his bed, and having his song with him in the night Amidst the
ordinary details of life, the devout aspirations of the heart were continually
breaking forth in ejaculations of thanksgiving and holy desire : his conversation
habitually dwelt on heavenly things; or, if secular objects were introduced, he
would turn them with sanctifying ingenuity into divine emblems and spiritual
analogies. His whole mind and life seemed impregnated with devotion, and all
his days formed, as it were, one Sabbath. The extent of his pecuniary liberality
was surprising. He considered it a binding duty on every individual to devote
at least the tenth part of his revenue to pious uses; and out of an income which,
during the greater part of his life, amounted to only forty pounds a year, and
never exceeded fifty, and from which he had a numerous family to support, he
generally exceeded that proportion. He distributed his benevolence with strict
attention to the Saviour's command, " Let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doeth."
He was aware of the importance of conversation among the various means of
doing good 9 and, though he laments his own " sinful weakness and unskilfulness
in pushing religious discourse," he was too conscientious to neglect the oppor-
tunities which presented themselves of promoting, in this way, the glory of God
and the best interests of men. He made it a distinct principle never to leave
any company in which he might be placed, without saying something which, by
the blessing of God, might promote their spiritual good. It is related, that,
liaving accidentally met Ferguson the poet walking in Haddington church-yard,
and being struck with his pensive appearance, he modestly addressed him, and
offered him certain serious advices, which deeply affected him at the time, and
doubtless had their share in exciting and promoting those terrible convictions
which latterly overwhelmed the poet's mind, and in which it may perhaps be
hoped there was something better than " the sorrow that worketh death." He
knew, however, that there was a certain discretion to be used in such cases, and
a selection to be made of the " mollia tempera fundi," the seasons when words
are " fitly spoken." Of this, the following anecdote is an example :— Having
occasion to cross the ferry between Leith and Kinghorn, with a Highland gentle-
man as his fellow-passenger, he was much grieved to hear his companion fire*
quently take the name of God in vain, but restrained himself from taking any
notice of it in the presence of the rest of the company. On reaching land, how-
ever, observing the same gentleman walking alone upon the beach, he stepped
up, and calmly reminded him of the offence he had been guilty of, and the law
of God which forbids and condemns it The gentleman received the reproof
with expressions of thanks, and declared his resolution to attend to it in future.
" But,' 9 added the choleric Celt, " had you spoken to me so in the boat, I be-
lieve I should have run you through."
It will not be supposed, that, after having given himself with such ardour to
study in circumstances of comparative disadvantage, he neglected to avail him-
self of the more favourable opportunities he now enjoyed of extending and con-
solidating his knowledge. By a diligent improvement of the morning hours,
and a studious economy of time throughout the day, he rarely spent fewer than
twelve hours of the twenty-four in his study. He possessed extraordinary
patience of the physical labour connected with hard study. No degree of toil
in the way of reading, or even of writing, seemed to daunt or to fatigue him.
Though he never enjoyed the assistance of an amanuensis, he transcribed most
of his works several times with his own hand: and even without a view to the
press, he more than once undertook the same fatigue for the convenience of pri-
vate individuals. In this way, at the request of the Countess of Huntingdon, he
Digitized by
Google
314 JOHN BROWN.
copied out his System of Divinity, before its publication, for the use of her Lady-
ship's theological seminary in Wales. He had remarkable facility in the acqui-
sition of languages; and of this species of knowledge, the key to every other, he
possessed an extraordinary amount Besides the three commonly called the
learned tongues, he was acquainted with Arabic, Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic,
and, of the modern languages, with the French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and
German. In the various departments of real as distinguished from verbal know-
ledge, his reading was very wide in range and various in subject His favourite
pursuits were history and divinity^ but every subject, which more nearly or more
remotely bore on the literature of his profession, he considered worthy of his
attention. He afterwards saw reason to repent of the wideness of his aims in
this respect, and to regret " the precious time and talents," to use his own words,
" he had vainly squandered in the mad attempt to become a universal scholar."
His reading, though thus extensive, was at the same time very exact and accurate.
In order to render it so, he in many cases adopted the tedious and laborious method
of compiling regular abridgments of important and voluminous books. Among
the works he thus epitomized, were Judge Blackstone's Commentaries, and the
Ancient Universal History.
In the month of September 1753, about two years after his ordination, Mi
Brown married Miss Janet Thomson, daughter of Mr John Thomson, merchant
at Musselburgh. For eighteen years he enjoyed in her a " help meet " for him
in his Christian course, and at the end of that period he surrendered her, as he
himself expresses it " to her first and better Husband," They had several chil-
dren, of whom only two survived their mother — John and Ebenezer, both of
whom their father had the satisfaction before his death of introducing as ministers
into the church of Christ, the former at Whitburn, and the latter at Inverkeithing.
Two years after the death of his first wife, which took place in 1771, he was married
a second time to Miss Violet Croumbie, daughter of Mr William Croumbie, merchant,
Stenton, East Lothian, who survived him for more than thirty years, and by
whom he left at his death four sons and two daughters, of whom only the half
are now alive. In his domestic economy and discipline, Mr Brown laboured
after a strict fidelity to his ordination vow, by which he promised to rule well
his own house. His notions in regard to the authority of a husband and a
father were very high, and all the power which as such he thought himself to
possess, was faithfully employed in maintaining both the form and the power of
godliness.
In the year 1758, Mr Brown, for the first time, appeared as an author. His
first publication was entitled " An Help for the Ignorant, being an Essay towards
an Easy Explication of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and Catechisms,
compiled for the use of the young ones of his own congregation." In addition
to this, he published, six years after, two short catechisms — one introductory to,
the other explanatory of, the Shorter Catechism. All these publications hare
been very extensively useful In 1765, he published, what was at the time by
far the most popular and successful of his works, entitled " The Christian Jour-
nal, or Common Incidents Spiritual Instructors." This work, though it has
some of the literary defects which, on such a subject, might have been expected
from an author so circumstanced, such as the occasional indulgence of unrefined
images, the excess of detail in tracing the analogies, and a certain monotonous
rhythm of style, in many cases scarcely distinguishable from blank verse — never-
theless displays an extraordinary richness and ingenuity of fancy, and in many
instances rises into a most impressive and heartwarming eloquence. In 1766
he published a History of the Rise and Progress of the Secession, and the yeai
following, a series of Letters on the Constitution, Discipline, and Government of
Digitized by
Googk
JOHN BROWN. 315
the Christian Church. These tracts were followed by his Sacred Tropology, the
first of a series of works which he designed for the purpose of giving a clear,
comprehensive, and regular view of the figures, types, and predictions of
Scripture. The second and third parts were published in 1781.
In the year 1768, in consequence of the death of the Rev. John Swanston of
Kinross, Professor of Divinity undor the Associate Synod, Mr Brown was elected
to the vacant chair. The duties of this important office he discharged with great
ability and exemplary diligence and success. His public prelections were di-
rected to the two main objects, first, of instructing his pupils in the science of
Christianity, and secondly, of impressing their hearts with its power. The sys-
tem of Divinity which he was led, in the course of his professional duty, to com-
pile, and which was afterwards published, is perhaps the one of all his works
which exhibits most striking proofs of precision, discrimination, and enlargement
of thought ; and is altogether one of the most dense, and at the same time per-
spicuous views which has yet been given of the theology of the Westminster Con-
fession. The charge which he took of those committed to his care, was not en-
tirely of the ' ex cathedra ' description. The situation of the Hall in a small
provincial town, and the manners of the age, combined with his just sense of the
importance of the students' private exertions and personal habits, enabled him to
exercise a much more minute and household superintendance over the young men
under his direction. Frequently in the morning he was accustomed to go his
rounds among their lodgings, to assure himself that they were usefully employing
"the golden hours of prime." The personal contact between professor and
pupils was thus remarkably close and unbroken, and hence we find that among
those who can recollect their attendance on the Divinity Hall at Haddington, the
interest with which every mind looks back to the scenes and seasons of early
study has a greater character of individuality, and is associated with minuter re-
collections than we generally meet with after so long a lapse of years.
The same year in which he was elected to the theological chair he preached
and published a very powerful sermon on Religious Steadfastness, in which he
dwells at considerable length on the religious state of the nation, and expresses
violent apprehensions at the visible diffusion and advance of what he called lati
tudinarianism, and what we of this tolerant age would term liberality of reli-
gious sentiment He likewise this year gave to the world one of the most
elaborate, and certainly one of the most valuable of all his writings, the Dic-
tionary of the Holy Bible. For popular use, it is unquestionably the most suita-
ble work of the kind which yet exists, containing the results of most extensive
and various reading both in the science and in the literature of Christianity, given
without pretension or parade, and with a uniform reference to practical utility.
In 1771, the Honourable and Reverend Mr Shirley, by command of the Countess
of Huntingdon, applied to Mr Brown for his opinions on the grand subject of
justification, in view of a conference to be held on this question with Mr Wes-
ley and his preachers. This application gave occasion to a long and animated
correspondence with that noble lady, (a correspondence which, in consequence
of our author's modesty, remained a secret till after his death,) and to a series of
articles from his pen on the doctrine of justification, which appeared, from time
to time, in the Gospel Magazine and Theological Miscellany, between the years
1770 and 1776. In the same year he was led, by a desire to contribute to the
yet better instruction of his students, to form the design of composing a manual
of church history on a general and comprehensive plan. It was to consist of
three parts, " the first comprehending a general view of transactions relating to
the church from the birth of our Saviour to the present time; the second con-
taining more fully the histories of the Reformed British Churches in England,
Digitized by
Google
316
JOHN BROWN.
Scotland, Ireland, and America; the third to comprehend the histories of the
Waldenses and the Protestant churches of Switzerland, France, Holland, Ger-
many, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Hungary." Of these he completed the
two former, his General History haying been published in 1771, and his History
of the British Churches in the beginning of 1784. These form very useful
popular compends, though destitute of high historical authority. The history of
the British Churches, as a work of original research, is much superior to the
more general compilation, which is little more than an abridgment of Mosheim,
written in a more fervid spirit than the latter is accustomed to display. Mr
Brown's next publication appeared in 1775, and was an edition of the metrical
" Psalms, with notes exhibiting the connection, explaining the sense, and for
directing and animating the devotion." In 1778 he gave to the world the
great work on which his reputation is chiefly founded, " The Self-Interpreting
Bible," the object of which is to condense, within a manageable compass, all
the information which an ordinary reader may find necessary for attaining an
intelligent and practical knowledge of the sacred oracles. The first publication
of this work was attended with considerable difficulties, in consequence of the
claim of the king's printers to the exclusive right of printing the authorised ver-
sion of the Scriptures, whether accompanied or not with illustrative matter.
This claim, however, having been set aside, the work was at length given to the
world in 1778, and received with a high and gradually increasing and still un-
exhausted approbation. The same year he published a small tract entitled " the
Oracles of Christ Abominations of Antichrist," and four years after, his " Letters
on Toleration :» strenuously maintaining the unlawfulness of tolerating by au-
thority a false religion in a professedly Christian country. These publications
originated in the universal sentiment of alarm entertained by the evangelical
presbyterians of Scotland, both within and without the establishment, in conse-
quence of the proposed ubolition of the penal code against the Roman Catholics.
In 1781, besides his works on the types and prophecies formerly referred to,
he published a sermon on the " Duty of Raising up Spiritual Children unte
Christ," preached partly at Whitburn, and partly after his son Ebenezer's ordi-
nation at Inverkeithing. He likewise, in the course of the same year, wrote a
pamphlet in defence of the re-exhibition of the testimony, and a collection of
the biographies of eminent divines, under the name of the " Christian Student
and Pastor." This was the first of a series of similar compilations intended as
illustrations and examples of practical religion, and was followed in 1781 by
the " Young Christian," and in 1783 by the "lives of thirteen Eminent Private
Christians. 9 ' In 1783, he published a small " Concordance to the Bible." The
year following, he received an invitation from the reformed Dutch church in
America, to become their Professor of Divinity, which he declined, and modestly
kept secret And, in 1785, he concluded his career as an author, by a pam-
phlet against the travelling of the Mail on the Lord's-day — a day for the obser-
vance of which, in the strictest degree of sanctity, he always showed himself
peculiarly jealous, not only abstaining himself, but prohibiting his family, from
speaking on that day on any worldly affair, even on such as related to what may
be called the secularities of religion and the church. The tracts published by
him in periodical works, along with his " Letters on Gospel Preaching and the
Behaviour of Ministers," were collected after his death, and published under the
title of "Remains."
Throughout his writings, Mr Brown's uniform aim was general utility ; per-
sonal emolument formed no part of his object, and certainly very little of his
attainment, as the whole profit accruing to himself from his voluminous, and in
many cases, successful works, amounted to only £40. Without pos ses s i ng much
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BROWN, M.D.
317
original genius, but on the other hand too ready, it may be, to submit the free-
dom of his mind to system and authority, he was endowed with a strong aptitude
for acquisition, and great power of arrangement, a sound and generally sober
judgment, and a rich and vivid fancy, though united with a defective, or rather,
perhaps, an uncultivated taste. The selection of subjects, and general concep-
tion of almost every one of them, are very happy, and in many cases the execu-
tion proves his high endowments for the task he undertook.
The time now drew near that he should die. For some years previous, he
had been greatly annoyed with a gradual failure, at once in the bodily power of
digestion and die mental faculty of memory— the symptoms of a constitution
fairly worn out by the intense and incessant labours to which it had been sub-
jected* In the beginning of 1787, his complaints increased in such an alarming
degree, accompanied by a general and extreme debility, that he found it neces-
sary to abandon the pulpit During the months of spring, he lived in a con-
tinual state of earnest and active preparation for the great change he was about
to undergo. He expired on the 19th June, and on the 24th his remains were
followed to their place of repose in Haddington church-yard, by nearly the
whole inhabitants of the town, and a large concourse of his friends and brethren
from a distance. At the first meeting of the Associate Synod after his decease,
" the Synod," as their minute bears, " unanimously agreed to take this oppor-
tunity of testifying their respect to the memory of the Rev. John Brown, their
late Professor, whose eminent piety, fervent zeal, extensive charity, and un-
wearied diligence in promoting the interests of religion, will be long remem-
bered by this court, especially by those members of it who had the happiness of
studying divinity under his inspection."
BROWN, John, M. D. founder of what is termed the Brunonian system in
medicine, and one of the most eccentric and extraordinary men of his time, was
a native of the parish of Bunkle, in Berwickshire, where he was born, in the
year 1735, or, as others assert, in 1737. Though only the son of a day-la-
bourer, he contrived to obtain an excellent classical education at the school of
Dunse, which was then taught by Mr William Cruickshank, one of the most
celebrated teachers that Scotland has produced. The genius and application
of Brown were alike so great, that, at an age when the most of children are only
beginning their letters, he was far advanced in a knowledge of Latin. His
studies, after some time, were broken off in consequence of the inability of his
father to maintain him at school. He was bound apprentice to the gloomy and
monotonous craft of a weaver, which must have been peculiarly unsuitable to his
lively faculties. However, he seems to have afterwards been enabled by the
kindness of his teacher to renew his studies ; and it is known that for this
purpose he had employed himself on the harvest-field. His proficiency in the
Latin recommended him, first to the situation of usher in the school, and after-
wards to that of tutor in a neighbouring family. When about twenty years
of age, he removed to Edinburgh, and entering the university, advanced so far
in the study of divinity, as to deliver a discourse preparatory to commencing
his trials before the presbytery. Brown, however, was not destined to be a mem
ber of this profession. Owing to some unexplained freak of feeling, he turned
back from the very threshold, and for some years supported himself in the hum-
ble capacity of a grinder in the university. His services in this capacity to the
medical students introduced him to a knowledge of medicine, which he suddenly
resolved to prosecute as a profession. His natural ardour of mind enabled hiir
very speedily to master the necessary studies, in which he was greatly assisted
by the particular kindness and attention of Dr Cullen, then professor of medi-
cine in the university. At one period, he acted as Latin secretary to this great
Digitized by
Google
318 JOHN BROWN.
man, with whom he afterwards quarrelled in the most riolent manner. In 1765,
he married, and set up a house for the purpose of receiving medical students as
boarders. But, his irregular and improvident conduct reduced him to bank-
ruptcy in the short space of two years. A vacancy occurring in the Hig-h
School, he became a candidate ; but being too proud of his real qualifications
to think any other recommendation necessary, he was overlooked in favour of
some child of patronage. It is said that, when his name, and his name alone,
was presented to the eyes of the magistrates, they derisively asked who he was ;
to which Cullen, then separated in affection from his former pupil, is stated to
have answered, with some real or affected hesitation — u Why, sure, this can never
be our Jock!' 1 Brown met with a similar repulse, on applying for the chair of
theoretical medicine in the university. Yet, notwithstanding every discourage-
ment from the great men of his own profession, this eccentric genius was press-
ing on towards the completion of that peculiar system by which his name has
been distinguished. His views were given to the world, in 1760, under the
title " Elementa Medicinae ;'» and he illustrated them further by lectures, which
were attended, as a supernumerary course, by many of the regular students of
the university. The Brunonian system simply consisted in the administration of a
course of stimulants, instead of the so-called anti-phlogistic remedies, as a means
of producing that change in the system which is necessary to work a cure. 'Hie
idea was perhaps suggested by his own habits of life, which were unfortunately
so very dissolute as to deprive him of all personal respect He was, perhaps,
the only great drinker, who ever exulted in that degrading vice, as justified by
philosophical principles. So far from concealing his practices, he used to keep
a bottle of whiskey, and another of laudanum, upon the table before him ; and,
throughout the course of the lecture, he seldom took fewer than three or four
doses from each. In truth, Brown lived at a time when men of genius did not
conceive it to be appropriate to their character as such, to conduct themselves
with decency. Thus, a man who might have adorned the highest walks of
society by his many brilliant qualities, was only fit for the company of the low-
est and most despicable characters. He was a devout free-mason, but more for
the sake of the conviviality to which it affords so fatal an excuse, than for the
more recondite and mysterious attractions ( if any such exist ) of the fraternity.
He was the founder of a peculiar lodge in Edinburgh, called the "Roman
Eagle," where no language but Latin was allowed to be spoken. One of his
friends remarked with astonishment the readiness with uliich he could translate
the technicalities and slang of masonry into this language, which, however he at
all times spoke with the same fluency as his vernacular Scotch. It affords a
lamentable view of the state of literary society in Edinburgh between the years
1780 and 1790, that this learned lodge was perhaps characterised by a deeper
system of debauch than any other. In 1786, Brown removed to London, in
order to push his fortune as a lecturer on his own system of medicine, which had
already acquired no little fame. But the irregularity of his conduct, and the
irascibility of his temperament, rendered all his hopes fruitless. He died at
London, October 7, 1788, of a fit of apoplexy, being then little more than fifty
years of age. His works have been collected and published by his son ; but,
like the system which they explain, they are now forgotten.
BROWN, John, an ingenious artist, was the son of Samuel Brown, goldsmith
and watch-maker at Edinburgh, where he was born in 1752. He received an
excellent education, after the fashion of Scotland, and was early destined to take
up the profession of a painter. Having formed a school friendship of no ordi-
nary warmth with Mr David Erskine, son of Thomas Erskine of Cambo, he
travelled with that young gentleman, in 1774, into Itnlv, where he was kindly
Digitized by
Google
JOHN BROWN. 319
received by Charles Erskine of the Rota, an eminent lawyer and prelate, the
cousin of his companion. He immediately attached himself to the Academy, with
a resolution to devote himself entirely to the arts. During the course of ten
years residence in Italy, the pencil and crayon were ever in his hand, and the
sublime thoughts of Raphael and Michael Angelo ever in his imagination. By
continual practice, he obtained an elegance and correctness of contour, never
equalled by any British artist ; but he unfortunately neglected the mechanism
of the pallet till his taste was so refined, that Titian, and Marillo, and Corregio,
made his heart sink within him whenever he touched the canvas. When he
attempted to lay in his colours, the admirable correctness of his contour was
lost, and he had never self-sufficiency to persevere till it should be recovered in
that tender evanescent outline which is so difficult to be attained even by the
most eminent painters. He wished every thing important to be made out, and
when it was made out, he found his work hard and disagreeable, like the first
pictures painted by Raphael, and by all that preceded that wonderful artist.
Brown, besides his genius for painting, possessed a high taste for music. His
evenings in Italy were spent at the opera, and he penetrated deeply into the
study of music as a science.
At Rome Brown met with Sir William Young and Mr Townley, who, pleased
with some of his pen and ink sketches, engaged him to accompany them to
Sicily as a draughtsman. Of the antiquities of this Wind, he took several very
fine views in pen and ink, exquisitely finished, yet stAi preserving the character
and spirit of the buildings he intended to represent.
It was the belief of one of Brown's Scottish patrons, that if he had gone to
Berlin, he would have obtained the favour of Frederick the Great, on account
of his extraordinary talents and refined personal character. A pious regard,
however, for his parents, induced him to return to his native city, where, though
universally beloved and admired, he found no proper field for the exertion of
liis abilities. Amongst the few persons of taste who afforded him their patron-
nge, was Lord Monboddo, who, with that liberality by which he was distinguished,
gave him a general invitation to his elegant and convivial table, and employed
him in making several pencil-drawings. He was also employed to draw pencil-
heads of fifty of the more distinguished members of the Scottish Society of Anti-
quaries, then just established ; of which he finished about twenty. Among other
works which he produced at Edinburgh, were heads of Dr Blair, Sir Alexander
Dick of Frcstonfield, Runciman, his friend and brother artist,' Drs Cullen and
Black, all of which were done in the most happy and characteristic manner.
His talent in this line is described as having been very great. Amidst the col-
lection which he had brought home to Edinburgh, was a portrait of the cele-
brated Piranese, who, being unable to sit two moments in one posture, reduced
his painter to the necessity of shooting him flying like a bat or a snipe. This
rara avis was brought down by Brown at the first shot.
In 178G, Brown was induced to remove to London, in order to prosecute, on
a larger field, his profession as a portrait-draughtsman in black lead. He was
here occasionally employed by ^Ir Townley, in drawing from his collection of
Greek statues, a branch of art in which Brown is allowed to have greatly excell-
ed. After some time spent in unremitting application, his health gave way,
and he was recommended to try the benefit of a visit to his native country, by
sea. On his passage from London to Leith, he was somehow neglected as he
lay sick in his hammock, and, on his arrival he was found at the point of death.
With much difficulty he was brought up to town, and laid on the bed of his
friend Runciman, who had died not long before in the same place. Here he
expired, September 5, 1787, having only attained the age of thirty-five.
Digitized by
Google
320 WILLIAM LAWRENCE BROWN, D.D.
BROWN, William Lawrkncb, D. D., an eminent theological and miscellaneous
writer, waa born, January 7, 1755, at Utrecht, where hie father, the reverend
William Brown, was minister to the English congregation. In 1757, his father
removed with his family to St Andrews, in order to undertake the duties tsf
professor of ecclesiastical history ; and the subject of our memoir, having com-
menced his education under his father's care, was placed successively at the
grammar-school and university of that city, entering the latter at the early age
of twelve. His native abilities, favoured by the fostering care of his father, en.
abled him, notwithstanding his immature years, to pass through his academical
course with distinction ; classical literature, logic, and ethics, being the branches
of study to which he chiefly devoted his attention. After studying divinity for
two years at St Andrews, he removed to Utrecht, where he prosecuted the same
study, and also that of civil law. In 1778, having previously been licensed by
the presbytery of St Andrews, he succeeded his uncle as minister of the English
church at Utrecht ; a field of exertion too narrow for his abilities, but which
he, nevertheless, cultivated with the same zeal and application which a con-
scientious clergyman might be expected to bestow upon one more extensive.
Such spare time as his duties left to him, he employed in attention to a few
pupils whom he received into his house. He at the same time enlarged his
range of study, and occasionally made excursions into France, Germany, and
Switzerland. In 1786, he married his cousin, Anne Elizabeth Brown, by
whom he had five sons and four daughters.
The first literary effort of Mr Brown, was an essay on the origin of evil,
written for a prize offered by the curators of the Holpian legacy at Utrecht,
and which was adjudged the second honour among the essays of twenty-live
competitors, that of being published at the expense of the trust. Soon after
this, namely, in 1784, the university of St Andrews conferred upon him the
degree of Doctor in Divinity. Dr Brown was successful in several other prize
essays, two of which were published, under the titles of " An Essay on the
Folly of Scepticism," London, 1788 ; and " An Essay on the Natural Equality
of Man," Edinburgh, 1793. The latter took a more sober view of the subject
than was generally adopted at the time of its publication ; and it accordingly
became the means of introducing Dr Brown to the notice of the British govern-
ment Previously to the armed interposition of the Prussians in 1 7 88, Dr Brown
was exposed to so much annoyance on account of his attachment to the dynasty
of Nassau, that he found it necessary to proceed to London, in quest of another
situation. The event alluded to, not only enabled him to retain his former
office, but caused his elevation to a professorship, newly erected in the univer-
sity of his native city, for moral philosophy and ecclesiastical history. He un-
fortunately was not allowed sufficient time to prepare the two elaborate
courses of lectures required in this new situation ; and, by his extraordinary
exertions to accomplish what was expected of him, laid the foundation of ail-
ments, from which he never afterwards recovered. His inaugural discourse was
published under the title of " Oratio de Religionis et Philosophic Societate et
Concordia maxima Salutari." Two years afterwards, he was nominated rector
of the university ; and on depositing his temporary dignity, he pronounced an
" Oratio de Imaginatione in Vitas Institutxone regenda," which was published in
1790. Though offered the Greek professorship at St Andrews, he continued in
Utrecht, till the invasion of Holland by the French, in the beginning of 1795,
when he was obliged to leave the country in an open boat, with his wife and
five children, besides some other relations. Notwithstanding the severity oi
the season, the roughness of the weather, and the frail nature of the bark to
which so many lives were committed, he reached the English coast in safety.
Digitized by
Google
HEW WOEKS AND NEW EDITIONS,
PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON:
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
■
SUPERIOR FAMILY BIBLES, COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME,
THE IMPERIAL FAMILY BIBLE;
Containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the most correct copies of the Author-
ised Version. With many thousand Critical, Explanatory, and Practical Notes. Also, References,
Readings, Chronological Tables, and Indexes. Illustrated by a Superb Series of Engravings,
from the Old Masters, and from Original Designs, by John Martin, KX. In one Volume, Im-
perial 4to, elegantly bound in Morocco, price £6, 10s.; or in 38 Parts, 2s. to.
This magnificent Edition of the Holy Scriptures— -which combines, in one handsome, usable Volume,
a large and readable type, numerous Notes, and the most beautiful series of Engravings in exist-
ence—has been honoured by the patronage of the Queen and Prince Albert, who nave each ordered
the Worb—hj various Dignitaries of the Church—and above Five Hundred Clergymen and
Ministers. Above thirty copies of the Work have also been sent to various members of the Boyal
Household,
" A noble and beautiful edition of the Sacred Volume. No copy has ever been placed before us dis-
tinguished by so many excellencies."— Art Union.
THE COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY BIBLE;
Containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the most Correct Copies of the
Authorized Version; with Copious Critical and Explanatory Notes, m A Practical Reflections ;
also References, Readings, Chronological, and other Tables. Complete in fQfrParts, Is. each, with
Fifty Illustrations. Metrical Psalms, 2s.
For beauty of form, text, and illustration, this Bible commends itself strongly to the Christian com-
munity ; and in its more important features of Comment, Reference, and Introductory matter, it
constitutes a Commentary of nigh value to all classes of Biblical Students.
The Engraved Illustrations consist in part of Historical Subjects, from the Ancient and Modern
Masters ; but the larger portion comprise views of Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, and other natural
Scenery; together with Cities and Towns, existing or in ruins; Temples, Tombs, &c; the whole
having direct reference to Bible Incidents and History, and more especially illustrating the Fulfil-
ment of Prophecy.
COOKE'S BROWN'S SELF-INTERPRETING BIBLE.
With an Introduction, copious Marginal References, and Notes Explanatory and Practical. With
several Thousand additional Notes, explaining difficult Texts, and reconciling seeming contradic-
tions. By the Rev. Henry Cooke, D.D., LL.D., Belfiut. Illustrated with Engravings. Complete
in 44 Parts, royal 4to, Is. each. With Barr's Index and Metrical Psalms, 2s. each additional.
BROWN'S SELF-INTERPRETING BIBLE.
Genuine Edition, with Corrections and Additions, under the Superintendence of the Author's
Family. With Two Thousand Critical and Explanatory Notes, numerous References and Read-
ings; also, a Memoir of the Author, by his (Jrandson, the late Rev. J. Brown Patterson,
Minister of Falkirk; and a complete Index and Concise Dictionary, by the Rev. John Barr,
Glasgow. With Historical and Landscape Illustrations, Family Register, &c Complete in 82
Puts, Is. each,
POCKET EDITIONS.
THE ILLUSTRATED POCKET BIBLE;
Containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the Authorized Version. With nearly
9000 Critical and Explanatory Notes, and 80,000 References and Readings. Also, Thirty-seven
Illustrations, consisting of Twenty-five exauisite Engravings, and a complete Scripture Atlas of
Twelve Coloured Maps. In 24 Numbers, 6tt each.
" Altogether the best and cheapest portable edition of the Scriptures which we have yet tern."— Atlas.
BOOK OF COMMON PRATER;
Illustrated and Annotated. With Twenty-nine Illustrations, chiefly from the Old Masters,
including Eight Designs for the Offices, by Scions. The Rubrics printed in red. The Notes
are compiled from the writings of Hooker, Barrow, Beveridge, Comber, Hall, Patrick, Burnet,
Home, Taylor, Seeker, Veneer, Wheatley, &c An Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress
of the Liturgy, an Explanation of Ecclesiastical Chronology, and a General Index to the Notes,
are added. In 16 Numbers, 6d. each. «... . *,
The inherent value and the beauty of these Books recommend them to Families as suitable and elegant
they are calculated at only 3d. each, they i— ~ — *— « .. . - * ,
9d. for the Common Prayer— a price lower than is paid for very inferior pocket Editions of these
Books.
Digitized by
Google
WOEKS PUBLISHED BT BLACKIE AND SON,
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
FAMILY COMMENTARIES.
HAWEIS' EVANGELICAL EXPOSITOR;
Or, a Commentary on the Holy Bible, with an Introduction, Marginal Reference*, and Readme*,
"by the Rev. John Brown of Haddington; and a complete Index and Concise Dictionary, by the
Rev. John Babr, Glasgow. With Map*, Plana, and other Engraving*, In 68 Parts, at It. each.
"I shall moit cordially recommend it to tenons Christians of all denominations."— John Newton.
HAWEIS' COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Complete, with Plates, in 40 Numbers, 6A each.
SCOTT'S COMMENTARY ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTA-
ME NTS: including Explanatory Notes, Practical Observations, and Copious Marginal Reference*.
With an Introductory Essay, and numerous additional Notes, by the Rev. William Symington,
D.D., Glasgow. Illustrated by a Series of Historical Designs, Landscapes, and other Embellish-
ment*. To be completed in 38 Parts, 2s. each.
BARNES 1 NOTES ON THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Improved, Illustrated, and Annotated Edition. Illustrated with Maps, Plans, and Beautiful
Engravings, on Steel and Wood, of Scenery identified with Scripture, from Original Drawings
by W. L. Lbitch, T. Allom, &c. To be completed in 33 Parts, It. each ; or Five Double
Volumes at 6t. each, and One at 4*. 6tt
This Edition of Barnes* Notes is enhanced in value above all others by the numerous Supplementary
Notes added in the Epistles, and which are corrective of certain opinions entertained by the
author, that are not in accordance with the views of Divine Truth generally held in this country.
Apart from this distinctive feature, the Illustrations (Sixty-six Plates in number) introduced
into this Edition render it not only the most valuable and beautiful, but also the cheapest copy
extant
BARNES' NOTES ON THE OLD TESTAMENT.
The Books of JOB and ISAIAH, with Additional Notes, Engravings on Stbbl, and
above One Hundred Illustrations on Wood, most of them to be found in no other edition.
13 Part*, It. each ; or Job, 2 vols., Cloth, 6s. ; Isaiah, 2 vols., Cloth, 8s.
BARNES* QUESTIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT.
For Bible Classes and Sunday Schools. One Vol, Cloth, 3t. 6U; or in 6 Parts, 64 each. Part
L Matthew— Mark. Part II. Luke— John. Part III. Act*. Part IV. Romans. Part V. 1 Cor-
inthians. Part VI. Hebrews.
This will be found an admirable Manual for Sunday-school Teachers and Heads of Families.
Selections from the Recommendations given to this Edition by eminent Ministers—
"Much as I value Barnes by himself, I should have two-fold security and comfort in recommending
to a student or Sabbath-school teacher, Barnes in conjunction with his Glasgow Editor."— Jams*
Hamilton, D.D., London.
"The superior beauty of your edition, its appropriate and finely-executed illustrations, by the Views
and Maps: and, above all, its additions by learned and accomplished Scots Divines, give to it a high pre-
eminence."— J. Pis Smith, D.D.
" In this excellent edition, the ground of such a fear [want of orthodoxy] is entirely removed by the in-
sertion, in small type, of certain explanatory or protective Notes."— John Harris, D.D., Ntw College, St.
John's Wood.
- The supplemental Notes give a particular value to Blackie's Edition of the deservedly popular Work of
the American Divine."— Alkxandm Hill, D.D., Professor of Divinity, Glasgow College.
" I think them [the Supplementary Notes] very valuable, and likely to aid the student in a more
correct view of truth than is, in my opinion, at all times found in the original expositions.**-^ amks
SnxaMAN. Surrey Chapel, London. *^
"The Notes, added in the edition of Messrs. Blackie and Sod, and printed in a smaller type, decidedly
enhance the value of the Work as tending to correct the one-sided interpretations which are given of
some passages."— Wiluam Lindsay, D.D., Professor ofBxegetical Theology, United Presbyterian Church.
BROWN'S DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE,
(Pictorial Edition), corrected and improved. By the Rev. Jambs Smith, AM. With
Illustrative Notes, by the Rev. H. Cook*, D.D, IAD. Illustrated by several Hundred Enarav-
ingsonWoodandSteeL In 20 Parts, It. each. ^
STACKHOUSE'S HISTORY OF THE BIBLE,
From the beginning of the World to the Establishment of Christanity; and a Connection of
Profane with Sacred History. Also, numerous Notes, explaining Difficult Texts, rectifying Mis-
translations, and reconciling seeming Contradictions. To which* are now added, an Introduction,
copious Additional Notes from recent Commentators, Critics, and Eastern Travellers, Disaerte-
S^ifA C^pJeto Indexes. Illustrated with 17 highly-finished Engravings, principally after
the Old Masters. 2 Vols, imperial 8vo, cloth, 35s.; orm 16 Parts, 2t. each. J
Digitized by
Google
WORKS PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON, 8
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
— — - — — — — rr— - r— — ~— ^— r— — — — — ' — — ■■ — i— w^— — ti— rrwn— ht
DEVOTIONAL AND PRACTICAL WORKS.
FAMILY WORSHIP.
A Series of Prayers, with Doctrinal and Practical Remarks on Passages of Sacred Scripture, for
every Morning and Evening throughout the Year; adapted to the Services of Domestic Worship.
With Twenty-one highly-finished Engravings. In 20 Parts, super-royal 8vo, It. each; Cloth, 21«.
THE CHRISTIAN'S DAILY COMPANION;
A Series of Meditations and Short Practical Comments, on the most important Doctrines and
Precepts of the Holy Scriptures, arranged for Daily Reading throughout the year. With Twenty-
one highly-finished Engravings. In 20 Parts, Is. each; Cloth, 21*.
THE WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN,
Practical, Allegorical, and Miscellaneous; with Editorial Prefaces and Notes, and an Essay
on Bunyah's Genius, Times, and Contemporaries. By George Offor, Editor of The
Pilgrim's Progress, for the Hanserd Knollys Society. First complete Edition; in about 24 Parts,
2*. each. Witn numerous Illustrations.
Buntan's Works form, as a whole, the most engaging, faithful, and invaluable Body of Divinity
that has ever been published, and that in a beautiful simplicity of language which no one can
misunderstand. The whole Works of Bunyan are not, however, of easy access. They have never
been all collected and published in any uniform series. The portions that have appeared from time
to time have all been mutilated, altered, and deteriorated; and, until some very recent Editions
of the Pilgrim, not a single book or treatise could be found in its original integrity and beauty,
except amongst the stores of book-collectors.
SEPARATE ISSUES.
To meet the wants of those who already possess the Allegorical Works of Bunyan, the Publishers
divide the whole Works into two Separate Issues.
L-THE EXPERIMENTAL* DOCTRINAI* and PRACTICAL WORKS. With Illustra-
tions. In 32 Parts, 1*. each.
II.-THE ALLEGORICAL, FIGURATIVE, AND SYMBOLICAL WORKS. With numerous
Illustrations. In 18 Parts, Is. each.
WILLISON'S PRACTICAL WORKS;
With an Essay on his Life and Times. By the Rev. W. M. Hethbrinqtom, LLD v Edinburgh,
1 Vol super-royal 8vo, cloth, 21*. ; or in 10 Parts, 2s. each,
DWIGHT'S SYSTEM OF THEOLOGY;
Or, COMPLETE BODY of DIVINITY; in a Series of Sermons. By Timothy Dwight, DJ>.
With an Essay on the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 1 Vol. super-royal 8vo, 21s.; or in 10
Parts, 2s. each.
WATSON'S BODY OF PRACTICAL DIVINITY,
In a Series of Sermons on the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly. To which is
appended. Select Sermons on Various Subjects, together with the Art of Divine Contentment, and
Christ's Various Fulness. The whole revised and corrected, with numerous Notes from approved
authors. 1 Vol super-royal 8vo, cloth, 16s.; or in 29 Nos. 6tt each,
BAXTER'S SELECT PRACTICAL WORKS,
Including the whole of his Treatises on Conversion, The Divine Life, Dying Thoughts, and the
Saints' Everlasting Rest. Carefully Revised, and preceded by a Memoir of the Author, and
Portrait. 1 Vol. super-royal 8vo, 26*. cloth; or in 12 Parts, 2s. each.
" Baxter's practical writings are a treasury of Christian wisdom."— JMbsrfnree,
BAXTER'S SAINTS* EVERLASTING REST;
The Divine Life; and Dying Thoughts; a Call to the Unconverted; and Now or Never. Care-
fully revised, and preceded by a Memoir of the Auther. 21 Numbers, 6tt each. Cloth, 11* 6d\
FLEETWOOD'S LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST;
With the lives of the Apostles and Evangelists. By the Rev. John Fleetwood, D.D. Also,
The Lives of the Most Eminent Fathers and Martyrs, and the History of Primitive Christianity,
by William Cave, D.D. With an Essay on the Evidences of Christianity, and numerous Notes
not to be found in any other Edition. To which is subjoined, A Concise History of the Christian
Church, by the Rev. Thomas Sims, M.A. Illustrated by Forty beautiful Engravings on Steel;
Imperial 8vo, Cloth, 22s.; or in 20 Parta, Is. each.
HALL'S CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE HISTORICAL PASSAGES
OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT8. By the Bight Rev. Joseph Hall, D.D., suc-
cessively Bishop of Exeter and Norwich. With an Essay on his Life and Writings, by Ralph
Wabdlaw, D.D., Glasgow. Illustrated Edition, complete in 15 Parts, Is. each.
Digitized by
Google
4 WORKS PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON,
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
INDISPENSABLE BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER;
A GENERAL DICTIONARY OF GEOGRAPHY, Physical, Political, Statistical, and
Descriptive, including Comprehensive Accounts of the Countries, Cities, Principal Towns,
Villages, Seas, Lakes, Rivers, l&lands, Mountains, Valleys, &c, in the World. Now Publishing
in Parts, 2s. 6d. each. A Companion to the "Imperial Dictionary/'
It is the purpose of the Imperial Gazetteer to supply such a Work as the circumstance* of
the present age require. In its compilation, the most recent and authentic sources will be consulted,
and particu'ar attention will be paid to the Trade and Resources of the various places described,
and to the Social Condition, Manners, Customs, &c, of the Inhabitants. Great care will also be
bestowed on the Physical Geography of Countries, in the various departments of Geology, Hydro-
graphy, Climatology, Botany, Zoology, &c, and on the laying down of geographical positions and
relative distances.
As no written description of a locality can give so accurate a conception of its features or posi-
tion as a plan or pictorial representation, this Work will be Illustrated by nearly Eight
Hundred Engravings on Wood, printed in the text These Illustrations will comprise Views
of Cities and Towns; of Remarkable Buildings, Antiquities, Natural Scenery, Costumes, Plans of
Ports and Harbours, and Small Maps of River Mouths, Islands, and Island Groups, &c, on an
enlarged scale. See full Prospectus and Conditions in Part First.
Selections from the Recommendations given to this Work:
** I am satisfied that it will prove an eminently useful aid to geography, being compiled with accuracy
and attention. It is also well printed, and beautifully illustrated."— Captain W. II. SiiiTB, R.N., 1LS.F*
D.C.L., F.S., &c, President of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
" I have no hesitation in approving highy of the plan on wliich it is to be conducted, and pronouncing it
to be a more valuable contribution to our geographical works of the present dav than any other of the
S./FJLSJJ., &c., Profe
A AAWVW UV UVfliVHblVU AS* **S#L/*Vr*lU£ A !«£«.& J VI bUV |/1CUI VU ITIUWU «* *9 %W VV M/UW
to be a more valuable contribution to our geographical works of the present day than any other
same kind with which I am acquainted."— G. A. Wauceb Aenott, LL.D., F.L." *"-""-
of Botany in the University of Glasgow.
" It appears to be carefully and correctly compiled."— Capt. Chas. D. Bsthunk, R.N., CJ3., FJLG.&,
of the Harbour Department, Admiralty.
u Excellent in every way."— C. Piazzi Smyth, F.B.S.E., FJLS.A*, Astronomer-Royal for Scotland.
** Well qualified to supply the want that has long been generally felt, of a Work adapted to the modern
state of geographical information."— Lieut. H. IUfkr, R.N., F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S.
"I have examined your Work, and compared it with others of similar pretensions. I have no hesitation
in saying that I consider it incomparably superior to all others that I am acqnaintcd with. The maps and
plans of towns and places are of great interest and usefulness.*'— Ljeomaad Schmitz, T/LD., Ph.D, F JLS JB»
Sector of High School, Edinburgh.
THE IMPERIAL DICTIONARY,
ENGLISH, TECHNOLOGICAL, and SCIENTIFIC; adapted to the Present State of litera-
ture, Science, and Art, on the Basis of Webster's English Dictionary; with the addition
of many Thousand Words and Phrases from the other Standard Dictionaries and Encyclopedias,
and from numerous other sources; comprising all Words purely English, and the principal
and most generally used Technical and Scientific Terms, together with their Etymologies, and
their Pronunciation, according to the best authorities. Illustrated by upwards of Two Thousand
Engravings on Wood. Complete in 80 Parts, Imperial 8vo> 2s. ott each.
THE POPULAR ENCYCLOPEDIA;
Or, CONVERSATIONS LEXICON ; being a General Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature,
Biography, History, Ethics, and Political Economy; with Dissertations on the Progress of Science,
Literature, and the Fine Art3, by Thomas Thomson, MJX, F.R.S., &c, Regius Professor of
Chemistry, University of Glasgow; Sir Daniel K. Sandpord, D.CX, Professor of Greek,
University of Glasgow; and Allan Cunningham, Esq., Author of " lives of British Painters,"
&c. Illustrated by many Hundred Plates and Diagrams. Complete in 14 Half Vols., lit. each,
or 28 Divisions, 5s. each; or 56 Parts, 2s. 6tt each.
CYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURE,
PRACTICAL and SCIENTIFIC; in which the Theory, the Art, and the Business of Farming,
in all their departments, are thoroughly and practically treated. By upwards of Fifty of the most
eminent Farmers, Land Agents, and Scientific Men of the day. Edited by John C. Morton,
Editor of the " Agricultural Gazette." With above One Thousand Illustrations on Wood and Steel.
Now Publishing in Parts, 2s. 6d. each, super-royal 8vo.
The object of this Work is to present to the Agricultural reader the whole of the truth imme-
diately connected with bis profession, so far as it is known to the men most familiar with the
sciences it involves, the methods it employs, and the risk it incurs.
Illustrations on wood and sttel, of Farm Buildings, Insects, Plants, cultivated and uncultivated.
Agricultural Machines, Implements and Operations, &c., will be given wherever it is presumed they
can be usefuL
Selections from the Recommendations given to this Work:—
" « w a Work of great merit, and will be very valuable to the practical farmer. Every farmer who can
afford it, ought to have a copy of the Work."— Thomas Balmer, Esq, Land Commissioner for the Duke
of Richmond, Gordon Castle. -
"The Work is fully up to the present day, there lnang ample details of the latest discoveries."— Me.
Gsorgb Hopr, Farmer, Fenton Barns, Drem, Haddingtonshire. '
"This admirable Cyclopedia."— Mark Lane Express.
I have no hesitation whatever in expressing my high opmion of the • Cyclopedia of Agriculture/ *<—
U : ;1t M , IL * uaw ' E9q -" S°»<rte Thirst, Yorkshire.
The beau ideal of a ' Cycle pedia of Agriculture.' "—Scottish Agricultural Journal.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WORKS PUBLISHED BY BLACKIB AND SON,
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
MECHANICAL AND OTHER PROFESSIONAL WORKS.
RAILWAY MACHINERY:
A Treatise on the Mechanical Engineering of Railways; embracing the Principles and Construc-
tion of Rolling and Fixed Plant, in all departments. Illustrated by a Series of Plates on a large
scale, and by numerous Engravings on Wood. By Daniel Kinnbab Clark, Engineer. To
be completed in about 24 Parts, 2». 64. each.
THE ENGINEER AND MACHINIST'S ASSISTANT;
Being a Series of Flans, Sections, and Elevations of Steam Engines, Spinning Machines, Mills for
Grinding, Tools, &c, taken from Machines of the moat approved construction at present in
operation ; with Descriptions and Practical Essays, on the construction and application of the Steam
Engine, and on various departments of Machinery. New and Improved Edition, in 28 Parts,
Imperial 4to, 2s. 64. each; or in 2 Vols., half morocco, £4, 4*.
THE CABINET-MAKER'S ASSISTANT;
A Series of Original Designs for Modern Furniture, with Descriptions and details of Construction,
preceded by Practical Observations on the Materials and Manufacture of Cabinet-work; and In-
structions in Drawing, adapted to the Trade; including Practical Geometry, Projection, Light and
Shadow, Perspective, and the execution of Working Drawings, &c Imperial 4to. In about 22
Parts, 2s. 64. each; and in Parts, Is. 64.
THE MECHANIC'S CALCULATOR;
Comprehending Principles, Rules, and Tables, in the various Departments of Mathematics and
Mechanics; useful to Mill-wrights, Engineers, and Artisans in general. Fourteenth Edition,
corrected and greatly enlarged. By William Gbibb, Civil Engineer. Cloth, 5s. 64.
THE MECHANIC'S DICTIONARY;
Being a complete Note-book of Technical Terms, Rules, and Tables, useful in the Mechanical Arts.
Illustrated by Engravings of Machinery, and nearly 200 Cuts and Diagrams on Wood. By
William Gbibb. Cloth, 9s.
The Calculator and Dictionary are published in one Series of 27 Numbers, 64. etch.
THE PRACTICAL MEASURER;
Or Tradesman and Wood-merchants' Assistant, with Plates. By Alexander Pbddib. New
Edition. Greatly enlarged. Roan, 6s. 64.; or in 12 Numbers, 64. each.
THE AGRICULTURIST'S CALCULATOR:
A Series of Tables for Land-Measuring, Draining, Manuring, Planting, Weight of Hay and Cattle
by Measurement, Building, &c. Adapted to the use of all engaged in Agriculture or the Manage-
ment of Landed Property. Complete in 17 Numbera, 64. each. Bound in Roan, 9s.
THE FARM ENGINEER;
A Treatise on Barn Machinery, and the application of Steam and other motive Powers for Agri-
cultural purposes. By Robert Ritchib, C.E., Edinburgh. 10 Parts, Is. each; or in Cloth, 12s.
THE FARMERS' GUIDE.
A Treatise on the Diseases of Horses and Black Cattle; with Instructions for the Management
of Breeding Mares and Cows. By Jambs Wbbb, Veterinary Surgeon. Cloth, 3s. 64.
SMITH'S ESSAY ON COTTAGES.
An Essay on the Construction of Cottages, for which the Premium was voted by the Highland
Society of Scotland. With working Plans, Specifications, Details, and Estimates. By G. Smith,
Architect, Edinburgh. Cloth, 4*.
THE TAILOR'S GUIDE.
A Practical Guide for the Tailors' Cutting-room; being a Treatise on Measuring and Cutting
Clothing,, in all Styles, and for every period of life; also the Cutting of Pulpit and Bar Gowns,
Regimentals, liveries, &c, with directions for Making-up and Alterations. By Joseph Coutb
With numerous Plates and Diagrams. In 14 Parts, 2s. each.
A TREATISE ON CLOCK AND WATCH-MAKING,
Theoretical and Practical. By Thomas Reid, Edinburgh. Illustrated with Twenty Folding
Plates, and Vignette Title-page. 21s. Cloth ; or in 10 Part* 2s. each.
A TREATISE ON THE ART OF WEAVING.
Illustrated by nearly 260 Figures, with Warp, Weft, and Tarn Tables, for the use of Manufac-
turers. By John Mubpht. Third Edition. 1 Vol. 8vo, 16s.; or in 16 Numbers, 1*. each.
Digitized by
Google
6 WOKKS PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND 80N,
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
POETICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
ITALY,
CLASSICAL, HISTORICAL, and PICTURESQUE; Illustrated in a Series of Views from
Drawings by Stanfibld, R.A, Roberts, R.A., Harding, Prout, Lettch, Brockedon,
Barnard, &c &c With Descriptions of the Scenes. Preceded by an Introductory
Essay, developing the Recent History and Present Condition of Italy and the Italians. By
Camillo Mapbi, D.D., formerly Canon of the Cathedral of Penne, and Graduate of the College
of San Apollinare in Rome. Complete in 20 Parts, 2t. 6d. each; or 1 Vol. half morocco, £3, St.
This is one of the most beautiful illustrative Works that have ever issued from the press. It
presents at the present moment a double claim to regard : independent of its beauty as a table-
book, the literary department contains much concerning Rome, its Papal Ruler^and Church cor-
ruptions, that ought to be known in the family circle.
THE WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS,
Complete Illustrated Edition, Literary and Pictorial, consisting of a complete Collection of his
Poems, Songs, and Correspondence; arranged Chronologically, and accompanied by numerous
Notes and Annotations. The whole preceded by Professor Wilson's Celebrated Essay "On
the Genius and Character of Burns/ and Dr. Currie's Memoir of the Poet In 25 Parts, royal
8vo, It. each; with SO Illustrations.
With Eight Supplementary Parts, containing 82 Plates; making in all 82 Illustrations.
2 Vols., elegantly bound in Cloth, S6t.
CASQUET OF LITERARY GEMS.
Containing upwards of Seven Hundred Extracts in Poetry and Prose, from nearly Three
Hundred different Authors. Illustrated by Twenty-five Engravings, from Original Drawings,
chiefly by Members of the Royal Scottish Academy. In 4 Vote., elenntiy bound in doth, price
28t.; or in 24 Parts, It. each. • — » J "> f*
" These four beautiful duodecimos contain an extensive snd valuable selection of our fin est prose sad
poetry."— Edinburgh literary Gazette.
REPUBLIC OP LETTERS;
A Selection in Poetry and Prose, from the Works of the most Eminent Writers, with many
Original Pieces. By the Editor of the "Casquet of literary Gems." With 25 Illustrations,
after the most admired Artists. In4 Vols., elegantly bound in Cloth, price 20i.; or in 16 Parts,
It. each.
HOGG'S (The Ettrick Shepherd) WORKS.
With Illustrations by D. O. Hill, Esq., R.S.A. POETICAL WORKS, with Autobiography and
Reminiscences of his Contemporaries. 5 Vols, small 8vo, St. 6d. each. T ALE S and SKETCHES,
including several Pieces not before Published. 6 Vols, small 8vo, St. 6rf. each. Hie Volumes are
sold separately, each being complete in itself.
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH,
Comprising Citizen of the World, Vicar of Wakefield, Poetical Works, Comedies, Miscellaneous
Essays, &c. With an Essay on his life and Writings. By Alex. Whitelaw, Editor of "The
S* , ? e L?« Litcrary 2 ei ? s - , L " Book of Scottish Son-" Ac With 87 exquisite Engravings on
Wood, by Branston, Omn Smith, and W. Linton, from Designs by W. Harvey and W. B. Scott.
10 Parts at It.; or in 2 Vols. Cloth, 12t.
BOOK OF SCOTTISH SONG ;
A Collection of the Best snd most Approved Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern; with
Critical and Historical Notices regarding them and their Authors, and an Essay on Scottish Song.
With Engraved Frontispiece and Title. In 18 Numbers, 6tt each ; or handsomely bound in Cloth,
gilt edges, 9t. Morocco elegant, lit.
BOOK OF SCOTTISH BALLADS ;
A Comprehensive Collection of the Ballads of Scotland, with numerous Illustrative Notes, by the
Editor of "The Book of Scottish Song." With Engraved Frontispiece and Title. In 15 Numbers,
64. each; or handsomely bound in Cloth, 9t. Morocco elegant, lit.
POEMS AJtfD LYRICS; BY ROBERT NICOLL:
With numerous Additions, and a Memoir of the Author. Fourth Edition. Foolscap 3vo, Cloth,
gilt, 3t. 6dL
POEMS AND SONGS BY ROBERT GILFILLAN,
With Portrait and Memoir of the Author, and an Appendix of his latest Pieces. Fourth Edition.
Foolscap 8vo, Cloth, gilt, St. 6U
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
WOBKS PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON, 7
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS.
THE HISTORY OP SCOTLAND,
From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. A new Edition, with Ninety Illustrations—
Landscape, Portrait, and Historical In 52 Parts, It. each ; or 12 half Vols. 5s. each.
This is the only Work embracing the entire ranee of Scottish History from the Earliest Times
to the present Year (1851).
CHAMBERS' BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OP EMINENT
SCOTSMEN. Revised and Continued to the Present Time. Illustrated with Eighty Authentic
Portraits, and Five Engraved Vignette Titles, representing the Principal Seats of Learning in
Scotland. The Revised portion, forming what constituted the Original Work, will be completed
in 86 Parts, Is. each ; and the Supplementary Volume will be completed in 9 Parts, Is. each.
A HISTORY OP THE PAPACY,
POLITICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL, in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Cbnturies;
including the Re-organisation of the Inquisition; the Rise, Progress, and Consolidation of the
Jesuits; and the means taken to effect the counter-Reformation in Germany, to revive Romanism
in France, and to suppress Protestant principles in the South of Europe. By Leopold Ranks.
Translated from the latest German Edition by David Dundas Scott, Esq. ; with Notes by the
Translator, and an Introductory Essay by J. H. Merle D'Aubignb, D.D. Complete in 20
Parts, Is. each; or 2 Vola, Cloth, 21s.
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION
IN TILE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. By J. H. Merle D'Aubignb ; Translated by D. D. Scott^
Esq.; with Notes by the Translator, and from the Netherlands Edition of the Rev. J. J. Le Roy.
Complete in 33} Parts, Is. each; or 8 Vols. Cloth, 35s. Illustrated with 17 Portraits.
THE PROTESTANT;
A Series of Essays, in which are discussed at length those Subjects which form the Distinguishing
Features between True and False Religion ; between the Christianity of the New Testament and
the Papal Superstition which has usurped the name. By William M'Gavin, Esq. New Edition,
with Memoir and Portrait of the Author, in 26 Parts, 6tt each; tr in Cloth, 14«.
ROLLING ANCIENT HISTORY,
With Extensive Notes, Geographical, Topographical, Historical, and Critical, and a Life of the
Author. By James Bell, Author of 'A System of Geography," &c. With numerous Illus-
trations. In 2 Vols, medium 8vo, 26s.; or in 24 Parts, Is. each.
A Third Volume on the Arts and Sciences of the Ancients, with Notes, by Jambs Bell.
Price lis. ; or in 10 Parts, Is. each.
*** This is the only complete and re-edited edition of RoUin now before the public
"The best edition that has yet issued from the press." — Oriental Herald.
THE WORKS OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS,
With Maps, and other Illustrations. In 22& Parts, Is. each.
WODROW'S HISTORY OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE
CHURCH of SCOTLAND. Edited by the Rev. Robert Burns, D.D« F.AJ3.E. Portraits.
4 Vols, doth, 3d*. ; or 33 Parts, Is. each.
" Wc consider the publication of WodroVs History as a noble boon bestowed upon the public."—
Bdinburgh Christian Instructor.
THE TEN YEARS' CONFLICT;
Being the History of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland. By Robert Buchanan, DJ).
2 Vols, small 8vo, piice 12s. library Edition, 2 Vols, large type, price 21s.
SCOTS WORTHIES,
Their lives and Testimonies. Revised and Enlarged Edition, including the Ladies of the Cove-
nant. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations on Wood and Steel, 22 Parts, Is. each.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
Memoirs of Distinguished Scottish Female Characters, embracing the period of the Covenant and
Persecution. By the Rev. James Anderson, Author of " Martyrs of the Bass.' 1 With numerous
Engravings. Handsomely bound in cloth, 7s. 6a\; or in 14 Numbers, 6d. each.
M The book will be an immense favourite with all who can appreciate the moral sublime."— Glasgow
MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
By M. db Bourribnnb. To which is now first added, An Account of the Events of the Hun-
dred Days, of Napoleon's Surrender to the English, and of bis Residence and Death at St Helena,
with Anecdotes and Illustrative Notes. In about 23 Parts, Is. each; with numerous Historical
and Portrait Illustrations.
Digitized by
Google ___
WOEKS PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON,
GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON
NATURAL HISTORY, MEDICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
A HISTORY OF THE EARTH AND ANIMATED NATURE.
By Outer Goldsmith. With Numerous Notes from tbe Works of Cuvier, Wilson, L.
Bonaparte, Cam pier, Vaillant, Lamarck, Lesson, Lacepkdb, Audubon, &c; as well
as from the Works of the more distinguished British Naturalists. Re-issue, with Coloured Plates;
containing nearly 2400 Illustrative Figures, of which about 200 aie Coloured. In 2 Vols, large Svo,
40».; or in 36 Parts, Is. each.
RHIND'S HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM;
Embracing the Physiology, Classification, and Culture of Plants ; with their various uses to Man
and the Lower Animals ; and their application in the Arts, Manufactures, and Domestic Economy.
Illustrated with 550 Engravings on Wood and Steel. 18 Parts, It. each; or Cloth, 20*.
" In his selection of important facts, and condensing and arranging his store derived from numerous
sources; the author displays considerable talent, and a knowledge of his subject, evidently the result of
deep and well-directed study.*' — Gardener? Gazelle.
"An aide and splendid work."— Edinburgh Advertiser.
"That which the author hath done he bath performed well."— Metropolitan Uagmm.
'* This is in all respects an excellent work."— Monthly Magarine.
CYCLOPEDIA OF DOMESTIC MEDICINE AND SURGERY.
By Thomas Andrew, M.D. Illustrated with Engravings on Wood and Steel Royal 8ra
17 Parts, Is. each; or in Cloth, 18s.
" Of much utility as a ready and simple^niJe in medical practice."— Liverpool Courier.
" We strongly ic commend the work.*— Bristol Tines.
ADAM'S ROMAN ANTIQUITIES;
Edited by James Boyd, LL.D., one of the Masters
of the High School, Edinburgh. 100 Illustrations.
Price 6*. (W.'in Cloth ; or with Questions, It. Cloth.
The Questions separately, pace Is, Cd.
A CHART OF SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY,
From the Creation to the Destruction of Jerusalem.
Compiled by Josr.rn Robertson, Itcctorof St. Johu's
Grammar School, Hamilton. In stiff covers, 44.
A HISTORY OF THE JEWS,
From the Babylonish Captivity to the Destruction
of Jerusalem. By Joseph Robertson, Rector of
St. John's Grammar School, Hamilton. Cloth, It. td.
A TREATISE ON DIET, *,
Comprising the Natural History, Properties, Com-
position, Adulteration, and Uses of the Vegetables,
Animals, Pishes, Birds, &c, used as Pood. By
William Davidson, M.D.,M.R,C.SJS. Price,
Cloth, 2*. M.
BAIRD.-RELIGION IN THE UNITED STATES
of AMERICA; Or, An Account of the Origin, Pro-
gress, Betations to tho State, and Present Condition
of the Evangelical diuretics In the United States ;
with Notices of Uie Unevangelical Denominations.
By the Rev. Robset Baied, D.D. Price 6*.
BARB'S (REV. JOHN) WORKS.
CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOB YOUNG
COMMUNICANTS, designed to assist them in
forming Scriptural views of the Lord's Supper ;
with an Address to Youuz Persons not yet Com-
municants. Twenty-third Edition. Price Ad.
HELP TO PROFESSING CHRISTIANS, in
Judging their Spiritual State and Growth in Grace
Second Edition. Small 8vo., price 8*. Cloth.
SCRIPTURE STUDENT'S ASSISTANT; being a
complete Index and Concise Dictionary of the
Bible. Ninth Edition. Foolscap 8vo, price 8s. 6d.
BROWS CONCORDANCE TO THE BIBLE.
Small 18mo, Is. Cloth, gilt edges.
COMMERCIAL HAND-BOOK;
A Compendium of Tables and Information for the
Trader, Merchant, and Commercial Traveller. 810
pages, 48mo, Is. roan.
FERGUSON'S INTEREST TABLES.
At Thirteen different Rates, from a Quarter to Six
per Cent. ; also, Tables of Commission and Broker-
age. Boan, 8s. 64.
HARTLEYS ORATORICAL CLASS-BOOK.
Eighth Edition, bound, 8s.
JOHNSON'S ENGLISH DICTIONARY,
With the addition of several Thousand Words, and
the Pronunciation on the basis of Walker; a concise
Heathen Mythology ; and numerous useful Tables.
By William Mayer. Eleventh Edition. 2s. bound.
LAND-MEASURER'S READY RECKONER;
Being Tables for ascertaining at sight the Contents
-• - ""or Piece of Land. By Neil M'Cil-
of any Pi rid
tocir. Third Edition,
S#. bound.
LAYS AND LAMENTS FOR ISRAEL:
Poems on the Present State and Future Prospects
of the Jews. Original and Selected. With Essay,
• by the Rev. JonN Andebson, Helensburgh. With
Frontispiece. Cloth, gilt edges, price is.
MERCANTILE ARITHMETIC,
Adapted to the Imperial Weights and Measures, with
the Nature, Use, and Negotiation of Bills of Ex-
change. By Gavin Laweie. Second Edition. In
Two Ports, bound in Boan, with Key, 8s.; or Parts I.
and II , in Cloth, each Is. Srf. ; the Key separately, Is.
MAN'S ABILITY:
With its Relation to Gospel Doctrine, and Moral
Responsibility, Scripturally considered. By the Rev.
J axes Gibson, A.M., Glasgow. Cloth, Ss. 64.
8TAFFA AND I0NA
Described and Illustrated. With Notices of the
principal Objects on the Route from Port Crinan to
Oban, and in the Sound of Mull. With many En*
gravings. In Fancy Binding, 2s. W.
"A tot superior Qu\i*-Uot>k.~— Spectator.
THE COMPREHENSIVE GERMAN DICTIONARY,
GEBMAN and ENGLISH and ENGLISH and
GERMAN. By J. 8. Geblach, PhD. Price,
bound, It. 6<L
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LITERATURE.
By Sir Daniel K. Sandto&d, D.C.L., M.P, Pro-
fessor of Greek in tho University of Glasgow. Fool-
scap 8vo, Cloth, 2s. W.
WALKER'S DICTIONARY AND KEY.
Beautifully printed in royal 18mo, with a Portrait
of the Author. Boan, it. W. The Key to the Pro-
nunciation of Proper Names, separately, Is.
GLASGOW: W. G. BLACKIE AND CO, PBINTEBS, YILLAVIXLD.
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google _
Digitized by
Googk
Digitized by
Google _^
Digitized by
Google
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11